When Trouble Comes Knocking
by iwantboromir
Summary: The CSI's get a big case involving murder and kidnapping. It soon becomes personal for Warrick and Nick. Set after my previous fic The Favor. FINISHED! amazingly, it ended up with 17 chapters, just like the Favor! How'd that happen?
1. Chapter 1

**Disclaimer: I still don't own these guys. Dang, I wish I could own Gary. But, it seems to be illegal to own someone. **

**As requested, I'm bringing back Gemma and Jessica. This is a continuance of The Favor, but I'm pretty sure it can be read without reading The Favor. In the CSI world, Warrick has been put on the backburner, but in my world……It's all about Warrick!**

**Feedback: Yes please! Constructive criticism is highly needed and appreciated. I know I'm not perfect, but with some help, I can get better!**

Nick came into the break room, running late. He was relieved to find only Warrick and Sara there. Sara was pouring herself a cup of coffee, Nick guessed it was at least her fifth or sixth already. The woman seemed to live on coffee.

Warrick, on the other hand, was kicked back on the couch looking relaxed. He wore a half smile on his face that wasn't anything new. Lately, Warrick was always smiling.

"Hey Bro, where is everyone?" Nick plopped himself down beside Warrick.

"Catherine went off to yell at Ecklie about something. Greg is in the trace lab, getting Hodges riled up. I haven't seen Gil or Sofia yet." Warrick answered lightly.

"It's not like Grissom to be late." Nick frowned.

"He's probably at a scene or something." Warrick shrugged.

"I don't have time to just sit around." Sara groused as she sat down at the table. "I hope he gets here soon."

"Just relax Sara." Warrick smiled at her. Nick and Sara exchanged a look over his head and laughed. "What?" Warrick looked from one to the other, smiling a confused smile, but a smile non the less.

"You are hopeless man!" Nick grinned, giving his head a shake, "You're a changed man."

"I'm a happy man!" Warrick corrected, his smile growing even brighter.

"Married life certainly does suit you." Sara gave a sigh, feeling a little jealous of the obvious love Warrick and his wife shared.

"Being married to Gemma suits me." Warrick agreed, without thought, he played with the silver band on his ring finger.

"So, how is Gemma?" Sara sipped her coffee, "I haven't seen her around lately."

"She's great!" Warrick sat up excitedly. "Did I tell you we're pregnant?"

"Only a thousand times!" Nick and Sara answered together, laughing. Warrick gave an embarrassed chuckle and shrugged. "I think it's cute that you're so excited about it. In fact, you are so happy….you are cuter!"  
"Who is cute?" Gil Grissom questioned as he hurried into the break room.

"Sara thinks I'm cute." Warrick rose, pulling a seat up backward to the table, straddling the seat. "She always wants what she can't have. Now that I'm unavailable, she's flirting with me."

Sara threw Warrick a dirty look, which he reflected with a smile. It was hard to stay mad at the man who's smile could make the coldest heart melt.

"Where's the rest?" Gil ignored the playful mood of the group.

"Greg's in Trace." Nick answered at the exact moment a loud crash clattered from the trace lab.

"OUT! O.U.T! OUT!" Hodges had Greg by the scruff of his neck, forcibly hauling him out. Greg Teetered to the side as Hodges shoved him, slamming the door closed behind him.

Seeing that everyone had witnessed his eviction, Greg grinned sheepishly and slithered into the seat next to Warrick. "Hi." He flushed with embarrassment.

"Something you want to share with the rest of the class?" Nick teased with a smile, not willing to let the embarrassment pass.

"Um….no." Greg tried to look professional.

"I don't think I'd want to know anyway." Grissom frowned at the youngest member of his team. "Do me a favor, leave David alone. I don't want a crime scene in my own lab." Clearing his throat, he turned back to the files in his hands. "Where's Catherine?"

"Ecklie." Warrick answered smoothly. "She's scheduled for court today anyway. I haven't seen Sofia since last night."

"Okay, Sofia is already out on a call." Grissom stood at the end of the table, not even bothering to sit down. "We've just gotten a big case. I need everyone who is available. Warrick? How's your hit and run case?"

"In the bag, Dad." Warrick gave him a grin.

"Nick?" Grissom pointedly ignored the grinning man.

"It's as good as done. I just have to file the papers." Nick nodded.

"Sara?"

"I keep hitting dead ends. "Sara frowned. "I've got a couple of ideas to run."

"Okay, keep on it." Grissom nodded. "Nick, Warrick, you're with me and Greg." Grissom decided.

"So, What's the deal, Pops?" Warrick questioned trying to look innocent.

"Warrick, knock that crap off." Gil shot him with a glare. "I'm Gil or Grissom to you and nothing else."

"Aww…You're bumming me out." Warrick pouted, sticking out his lower lip. Greg and Nick attempted to stifle their laughter, but Greg didn't succeed. Instead, he earned a look of warning from Grissom.

"A happy Warrick is an irritating Warrick." Sara rolled her eyes as she got up, gathering her things. "We done here Grissom?"

"You are." Grissom waved her on. Turning to the remaining CSI's he began. "Our State Representative, Jillian Holcomb's two children are missing. Their nanny was found murdered in the Holcomb house. The media is all over this one. We're going to be getting heat from all over the place from this one."

"Murder and kidnapping." Nick gave a whistle. "I suppose the sheriff will be riding our backs the whole time?"

"Of Course." Grissom answered with a grimace. "Come on. Nick, you can drive. Happy here can sit in the back and be quiet or he'll walk." Grissom headed towards the door, pausing to give Warrick a fond squeeze on the shoulder. "Grab you're gear boys, it's going to be a long night."

Brass met the men at the truck as they climbed out. "Gil, this place is a mad house."

"Has the scene been disturbed?" Gil demanded to know as they gathered next to the police captain. Warrick pulled out his mag-light and began scanning around.

"Responding officer cleared the scene. Paramedics pronounced. Other than that, it's been just me."

"Who was the responding officer?" Nick cut in, looking around at the familiar faces milling around.

"Ford." Jim pointed to the lanky cop standing by the entrance to the house.

"Good." Nick nodded. "He knows how to approach the scene." Nick picked up his kit and headed over to talk to the officer.

"David here already?" Gil questioned, looking around for the coroners vehicle. Warrick had wandered away, searching the hedges now, the playful Warrick had disappeared, this one was all business.

"Actually it's Al." Jim informed him.

"Al?" Gil was shocked. The man was rarely out in the field. Doc Robbins normally sent David out on the call and stayed behind to man the morgue. "He here because of the politician?"

"He knows the family of the victim. He wanted to be personally involved." Brass shrugged to Greg. Grissom had wandered over to the driveway where Warrick was already kneeling.

"What have you got Rick?" He questioned, looking over the man's shoulder.

"Tire tread. Some rubber. Whoever was here, left in a hurry." Warrick was digging into his kit ready to start taking evidence.

"Good…..that fives us somewhere to start. You stay on this. I'll take Nick inside with me."

"I get Greg, huh?" Warrick looked up and grinned. "That my punishment for calling you Dad?"

"No. This is nothing compared to what your punishment will be." Grissom promised with a smirk.

"Yeah……we'll see." Warrick went back to work, pulling out the his camera. A moment later, Greg appeared at his side. "I got this. Take the perimeter, see if there's any tracks in the beds around the house."

The CSI's went to work. Hours later, the four of them gathered in the front yard again. They had come up with a whole lot of nothing. Nick had a partial shoe print in the victim's blood. Greg had found a discarded cough drop wrapper and Warrick had his tire tracks. Nothing seemed all that helpful.

The sheriff showed up with Ecklie. "What have we got Grissom?"

Absolutely no trace of the children." Grissom grimaced. "Warrick's heading to the lab with a few things to go to trace, but we're no farther then we were when we got here."

Warrick ran the stuff to the lab, running the evidence himself. Nick went to do the initial interview with Jillian Holcomb while Greg went with Gil to the Morgue. They were all hoping that something would show up somewhere.

Nothing brought them any closer to finding out where the children were nor who murdered Debra Johanson. Grissom interviewed the family of the deceased nanny. Warrick tracked down every make of car that used the tire with the tread he found. Nothing was panning out.

The day was spent digging for clues and answers, but they received nothing but frustration. Jillian's ex-husband was their only suspect. Greg found that the man had a perfect alibi, he was in jail two counties over.

Time dragged on and on with no results. "Warrick, you have a family now, you can't work a triple without going home to see them." Nick frowned. "Go home. Kiss your wife, hug your child. Sleep a couple of hours and then come back."

"Just because I'm married doesn't mean I should get special treatment. Everyone's pulling a triple, I shouldn't be any different." Warrick argued, leaning heavily on the counter behind him.

"Nick is right." Grissom came into the conversation. "For some reason, Gemma likes looking at your mug. Go let her see it." He ordered. "When you get back, I'll send one of the guys home to sleep. We aren't getting anywhere right now anyway."

"Alright Gris, I'll go……but you'll call if anything breaks, right?" Warrick yawned.

"Of course." Grissom nodded, "Go get some sleep."


	2. Chapter 2

Warrick peeked into Jessica's room. The bed was empty and looked as if it'd been unused. He hurried to his own bedroom, knowing that Gemma often let Jessica sleep with her when he wasn't home.

Entering the room he smiled, sure enough, Jessica was sprawled out on his side of the bed. Gemma was curled up beside her, facing her as if she'd fallen asleep watching her. Warrick took a moment to watch the two females sleep. They had quickly become his reason for living.

His attention focused on Jessica as she made a sound in her sleep and flopped onto her back. Looking at her made him think of the missing girls. Kelly Holcomb was only a year older than Jessica. He'd looked at the little girls pictures many times over the last hours. Kelly had a smile that reminded him of Jessica, full of life and energy. He couldn't imagine what would happen if Jessica disappeared. In the year that he'd known her, she'd become a part of him. She was more important to his life than the heart beating in his chest.

Tears clouded his eyes as he thought of the two missing girls. Kelly with her big smile dimpling her cheeks. Fourteen year old Lizzie with her smirk that promised a wry sense of humor. He wondered what they were like in person. He wanted to find them, from whatever hell they were living through, so that he could meet them. Warrick rubbed his face with his hands tiredly, berating himself for getting too personally involved.

He reached out and fingered a dark curl on Jessica's head. Crimes against children had always brought out the worst in him, but now that he was a father, a rage grew in him. He wanted to cause pain to the one who had taken the Holcomb girls. "I'll get them back." He vowed in a whisper.

He quietly discarded his clothes and slid into bed beside Gemma. He spooned up against her, pulling her as closely as he could. "Hmm," Gemma turned her face towards him groggily. Warrick privileged her with a kiss.

"Sorry I woke you." He murmured, nuzzling the back of her neck, feeling her soft golden locks tickling his face.

"So'kay." Gemma sighed. Warrick felt her relax back into sleep. He lay there, amazed that one small woman could make him feel so complete. After a long miserable, frustrating day, her simple sigh could set it right.

Relaxed and calm, he joined her in sleep. It seemed that he'd just closed his eyes when the alarm rang. Reaching over, he slammed it off. "No…..stay here….sleeping with me." He mumbled as he felt Gemma stir.

"I wish I could, but Jess has a doctor's appointment at nine." Gemma kissed him before climbing over him and out of bed.

"Set the alarm for ten please?"

"Warrick! Can't you just sleep until you wake?" Gemma complained, but she was already resetting the clock.

"Can't…..just a nap…..We're taking turns. Nick and Greg can't sleep until I get back." Warrick explained with a yawn, not even opening his eyes.

"Daddy's here!" A little voice squealed a moment before he was jumped on. Warrick opened his eyes to see the adorable little face of his daughter. He hugged her, giving her a noisy kiss on the lips.

"Come on Jessie, Daddy has to sleep so he can go back to work." Gemma reached for her daughter. Warrick gave her another kiss before releasing Jessica. He yawned and closed his eyes again as Gemma carried the protesting childe out of the room.

At the alarm, Warrick reluctantly rose. The house was silent and lonely without his girls in it. He made his way into the shower, lethargic but feeling a bit better after a three hour nap.

Shaving, he spotted Gemma's prenatal vitamins and couldn't suppress a grin. A baby! Part him, part Gemma. A living creature, representing the love between them was now growing inside his beautiful bride. His two beautiful girls and now a baby on the way. No matter what he faced during the day, all he had to do was think of them and he could smile.

Arriving at the lab, he found Nick and Greg in the break room and gave them a smile. "Oh lord, he's happy again." Greg groaned. Nick didn't answer, he had his head down on the table, asleep.

"Anything new?"

"Made a mold of the stab wound." Greg shrugged. "Just a common hunting knife. You can buy them everywhere. There was nearly four hundred purchases in this area the last few months. No leads there."

"Where's Gil?"

"Interviewing Holcomb again." Greg stifled a yawn.

"How are you holding up?" Warrick asked Greg, looking down at Nick, who still hadn't moved. "You good enough to drive?"

"Yeah, I've been pretending I'm Sara, I've got coffee instead of blood running through my veins." Greg bragged. "Besides, I'm young, I don't require as much sleep.

"Good, I'll help you get him down to your car. You can drop him off at his place on your way home." Warrick went over and physically pulled the unconscious Texan to his feet.

"Grissom never said anything about both of us leaving at the same time." Greg worried.

"Yeah, but he's not here, I am. I'm your elder. Hell, I'm even your superior. I'm ordering you to take Nicky home and go catch some shut-eye. I'll page you if we need the extra bodies." Warrick began to walk towards the door way with Nick. "Hell, the boy's gained weight since our drinking days."

It took a few extra minutes to get Nick into Greg's Charger. Warrick was grateful that Nick had overcome his phobia of the elevator, because the man was just too heavy to drag down the stairs, half-conscious. Greg wasn't much help in the moving department either. By the time he'd loaded Nick into the car, he realized that Greg was in no shape to drive either.

Shoving Greg into the car, he climbed into the cramped car. He wasn't up to moving Nick any more than he had to. He decided to dump them both off at Nick's. He knew Nick had a spare room that Greg could crash in. Glancing over at Greg, he grimaced, wondering if he was going to have to carry them both into the apartment. He was thankful that Nick had a place on the ground floor.

"Wha's hap-" Greg slurred as Warrick pulled him out of the car at Nick's place. He swayed a bit, but he stayed standing on his own.

"You're staying here at Nicky's." Warrick went around to dig the other man out, grateful that he had a key to the apartment, he didn't relish fishing them out of the other man's pocket. Nick woke enough to follow Warrick into the apartment without being dragged. Warrick led them inside, making sure they both landed safely on a bed, set the alarm on Nick's night table and hurried back to the lab.

Grissom was looking for his team when he got back. "Warrick where have you been? Judy said she saw you here. I was beginning to think she was imagining things."

"I took the guys to Nicky's." Warrick explained with a shrug.

"Both of them?" Grissom frowned. "I need research done, I have things that need to be run."

"Griss, Nick was unconscious, Greg was spazzing from too much coffee. They wouldn't be any use. I'll do the work. I can handle it."

"You get any sleep?"

"Enough to keep me going. Thanks…..for insisting that I go home. My girls made me feel better than the sleep did." Warrick reached over for the file that Gil held in his hand. "What about you? You'll need some sleep too."

"I'll sleep when Catherine comes in. All other Nightshift cases are being passed to other shifts until we get somewhere with this one. I'll brief her then go sleep for a while." Gil explained, refusing to admit how much he needed to sleep. "Everyone knows this is our top priority. They'll give you everything you need."

Warrick got himself a cup of coffee, wincing at it's bitterness on first sip. His mind already set to the tasks ahead, he ignored the awfulness of the coffee, and took it to the computer lab. He needed all the fuel he could get if he was going to get through anything.


	3. Chapter 3

Nick opened his eyes, wondering what had woken him. As his eyes focused on the ceiling above him, he wondered when he had fallen asleep. Turning to look at the clock, he wondered how he'd gotten into his own bed. Last thing he remembered was sitting in the break room with Greg.

Hearing a strange noise, he forced himself out of bed. Groggily, he wandered out of his bedroom, in search of the source of the noise. The source of the strange noise was in his spare bedroom; Greg Sanders was snoring loudly, sprawled out on his guest bed. Shaking his head in confusion, he headed for his kitchen, wondering why and how Greg was sleeping over.

Out of habit, he made coffee without the use of his brain. It was foggy with sleep. Coffee set, he headed back to his bedroom in time for the alarm to go off. He didn't remember setting the clock, but then, he didn't remember anything leading up to where he was. He shut the alarm off and went to his dresser, debating if he should wake Greg. Having only one bathroom and shower, he decided not to wake the other man until he'd showered.

The doorbell startled him as he made his way to the bathroom. He glanced at the clock again, seven in the evening was too late for a salesman, and Warrick had his own key. Heading to answer the door, he felt in his pocket. His keys were still inside, which meant, he didn't use them to get inside last night. He always took the keys out of the door and dropped them in the dish beside the door. A habit ingrained in him, so he wouldn't spend countless hours searching for his keys.

Opening the door, he decided that Warrick must have somehow gotten him home to sleep, using his key. It took a moment for his fuzzy mind to register that there was a beautiful woman standing on his doorstep. It only took him a split second to decide that he didn't care that he didn't know who she was, but he wanted to.

She was as tall as he was, able to look him straight in the eye. She had beautiful golden eyes, reminding him of a cat. Her rich red curls were pulled back out of her beautiful face.

The goddess remained quiet as he looked her over, liking everything he saw. She looked less than amused at his gawking. "Hello?"

Shaking himself, Nick gave her a lopsided grin. "Uh, hi. Something I can do you for?"

Amused by his dumb reply, she gave a wry grin. "This is going to sound really weird, but…..I need to talk to you."

"Excuse me, but do I know you?"

"No, and I don't know you, but I was sent here, to this address." The redhead took a deep breath. "My name is Lucy Malone, and…..Debra Johanson asked me to come here."

"Debra Jo-" Nick frowned. "The nanny that was-"

"Murdered, yes, she asked me to come here." Lucy cut in. "She said that you would be here, and had some things she wanted me to relay to you."

"She asked you….to come here…..to talk to me?" Nick rubbed the back of his neck as he tried to piece it all together. "She couldn't know to come to me……..did you see some news report that mentioned me or showed a picture of me?"

"No, Debra asked me to come to this apartment, to talk to the man who lives here." Lucy looked hesitant as she added. "She said that you would be able to help the children."

"The children?" Nick repeated with interest. "When did she tell you this?"

Lucy looked around nervously, she looked over his shoulder, wide-eyed. Nick looked behind him, Greg was standing in the hallway, rubbing the sleep out of his eyes.

"There's coffee in the kitchen." He told Greg. "Come on inside Ma'am, I think maybe Greg should hear you too."

"Thank you, but please, call me Lucy." She stepped inside. Greg looked blurry-eyed at the woman as she came inside. She held out her hand to Greg. "Lucy Malone."

"Greg S-Sanders." Greg gaped at the woman, before giving her a shy smile. "Are you a model?"

"No, I'm a nurse." Lucy laughed. "Would you be so kind as to introduce me to him? He doesn't seem all that friendly at the moment." She shot a glance at Nick who narrowed his eyes at her with distrust.

"Nick Stokes, " Greg crowed. "That's the first time someone has ever said he's not friendly. He's known for throwing around his Texas charm! He's so polite, if you spit in his face, he'd thank you for sharing."

"Greg." Nick growled in warning.

"Ah, come on, it must be that he's in need of coffee!" Greg motioned for them to follow him into the kitchen. He opened the cupboards, in search of mugs. The second try, he found the goldmine and set out three mugs. "You want coffee Lucy?"

"Please. It's been a long night. Not as long as the night you guys have had." Lucy accepted the mug and set herself at the table. Greg handed Nick a steaming mug and set himself down across from the woman, staring at her flirtatiously. Nick leaned against the counter, frowning.

"When did Debra tell you to come here?" He demanded, knowing that the woman couldn't have known he was going to investigate her murder. "And what do you know about what our night has been like?"

"Debra told me." Lucy snapped, golden eyes sending sparks. "Last night. She told me to come here. That you," She looked pointedly at Nick, "would be the most open-minded about this. That you would be willing to hear me out!"

"There is no way that Debra Johanson could have talked to you last night, she died…"Nick glanced at his watch. "About 40 hours ago."

"She said you've had experience with people with psychic abilities. A Mr. MORRIS PEARSON, he was a clairvoyant?" Lucy frowned questioningly. "He died, in your home, but not this one."

"How the hell do you know that?" Nick surged forward, angry.

"Debra told me about him." Lucy informed him. "Last night."

"That is not possible." Greg cut in.

"Yes, it is. At least, for me." Lucy looked at Nick, seeing that he was understanding.

"You're saying that you're a clairvoyant also?" Nick surmised.

"No, I'm a medium."

"There's a difference?" Greg questioned, looking from one to the other with confusion evident.

"Yes. A clairvoyant receives feelings and visions of what is happening and about to happen." Lucy explained to Greg, but her eyes remained on Nick. "I'm a medium, I receive messages from the deceased. Visitations, visions of them."

"And Ms. Johanson visited you?"

"Yes." Lucy nodded. "Last night, she wants me to help you guys find the children before they are harmed. She knows that they are in danger."

"So what is it that she wants us to know?" Nick came forward, pulling out a chair, he flipped it backward and sat down. Leaning over the back of the chair, he demanded, "Let's hear it."

"You're not believing me……"Lucy eyed him, "Debra said it had to be you. The tall, dark one would be busy with his family."

"Warrick?" Greg questioned.

"Shut up Greg." Nick snapped with a dark look to the younger man. He obviously needed more practice in the interrogation room. Nick mentally noted to have a talk with Grissom about that.

"Debra said your friend would be in no shape to listen to me, too traumatized." Lucy frowned. "I am sorry about the baby."

"Baby? What about the baby!" Greg demanded, looking fearful.

"She's going to lose it, because of her injuries." Lucy explained, as if that said it all. "But, Debra will watch after it. He'll have another child soon."

"Excuse me, I gotta go make a call-" Greg got up and hurried out of the room.

"Greg! Don't go freaking Rick out!" Nick called after him. He spun back around to glare at the redhead. "You better start talking, I'm about to stop listening and just call the police."

With a heavy sigh, the woman looked at Nick, almost hurt-like. "Debra wanted me to tell you that Jillian is involved. She didn't do it, she's too smart for that, but she had it done."

"Like Jillian Holcomb would kidnap her own kids from her own house!" Nick spat, disgusted. "Come on, give me a break!"

"It's all political. Debra overheard her talking, that's why she had to die. Jillian hired some men to kidnap her children, hoping for some publicity. Debra is watching over the children, and she is afraid for them. The men are not going to do what Jillian hired them. They're going to hurt them. They are in danger."

"Nick!" Greg came running into the kitchen. "I called Warrick, but he was out on the field. So I called the lab, Cath told me that Gemma was involved in some type of attack. We gotta go get Warrick and meet her at Desert Sands."


	4. Chapter 4

WTCK Chapter 4

Forgoing the shower, Nick and Greg changed and ran out the door. Halting just outside the apartment, they looked to each other in bewilderment. There wasn't a car to be seen. "How the hell…?"Nick wondered aloud. A tapping of a horn brought his attention to the street corner. The redhead sat in an idling Taurus. She beckoned to them.

Maybe she is clairvoyant." Greg chuckled as he jogged over to the car. "Stop being an ass and come on." He called, climbing into the front seat. With a heavy groan, Nick came over and climbed into the back seat. As soon as his seatbelt was buckled the car sped off.

"Where too?" She asked Greg. Greg rattled off the address of Jillian Holcomb.

"What about the lab?" Nick asked as she headed off in the direction Greg pointed her in.

"Warrick's gonna have a vehicle there. We can't just keep leaving our cars everywhere, wily-nily. We can drive him to the hospital in it then return to the lab from there." Greg explained.

"We're taking a potential suspect to a crime scene. That's a great idea, Greg." Nick grumbled. Lucy looked at him in the rear view mirror, not pleased. He figured that she was tempted to pull over and kick him out of the car.

He worried about Gemma. He worried about what he would tell Warrick. He worried about how Warrick would react. He worried about what Grissom would think about having a clairvoyant in the mix. He worried.

"Mom, can I get a wing fwom the machine?" Jessica asked as they entered the store. Gemma sighed, lifting her daughter into the cart. Pretty soon, the four year old would be too heavy for her to lift. Warrick already worried about her lifting Jess in her condition. With a sly smile, she touched her stomach. It was too soon for anyone to know, but she felt the pride. She and Warrick had created a child together. If someone had told her a year ago that she would be married to such a man, and part of such an extended family, she would have laughed.

"If you behave and I have a quarter, you can get one on the way out." Gemma agreed. She had decided to make a casserole for the night shift. She knew the guys, they wouldn't be eating much less sleeping. They'd be surviving on coffee as they usually did on a big case. She'd watched the news, she knew what case they were working. Glancing down at her daughter as she began to head through the store, she felt a twinge of pity for the mother of the missing girls. "Jess, do you know how much I love you?" She smiled down at her daughter.

"Bunches and Bunches!" Jessica crowed with a giggle.

"You betcha!" Gemma leaned down and kissed her. "Now, let's get stuff to make Daddy and the gang some food."

"Cookies?" Jessica questioned hopefully.

"Sure, why not." Gemma agreed happily. "We can make some cookies for them too." They made their way through the store and the checkout line.

"Need help out with this Mrs. Brown?" Joey, the bagboy questioned politely.

"I think we've got it Joey." Gemma shook her head. "I'll take you up on that on a later date."

"Sure thing Mrs. Brown." Joey nodded with a grin. Gemma stopped at the little red machines, giving Jessica two quarters. Jessica put the quarters into the machine twice, coming out with two cheap plastic rings. She crowed with delight when she saw the second one. It had a little pink lady bug on it.

"Look Mommy!" She showed the ring. "Gwampa loves buggies!"

"Yes he does!" Gemma agreed, taking the little girls hand with one hand, pushing the cart with another. "You'll have to show him next time we see him."

"I wanna wear my wing when we take dinner to him and Daddy." Jessica declared as they got to the car. Gemma released her hand as she popped open the trunk.

"Start getting into your seat baby." She told her, loading the groceries into the trunk.

"Gemma Brown?" A deep masculine voice startled her. Turning, she found a man she didn't know standing nearly on top of her.

"Yes?" She asked timidly.

"Tell your husband to lay off the Holcomb case." The man threatened a second before he hit her. The man's meaty fist connected with Gemma's jaw, sending her flying to the ground. The pain blurred her vision, and caused a ringing in her ears. She tried to stay conscious as his foot connected with her ribcage.

"Mommy!" Jessica screamed. Gemma's last conscious thought was of her daughter.

"Gemma! Gemma! Wake Up!" Catherine Willows demanded of the unconscious woman lying in the hospital bed. "Come on Gemma-girl, wake up! Wake up before Warrick gets here." Catherine saw a fluttering of eyelids and felt a sense of relief. "Good girl. Yes, that's it girl. Warrick's on his way. Wake up for him."

Gemma didn't open her eyes, but she was able to make a moan, "Jess?"

"She's fine." Catherine sighed with relief. "She's out in the hall with Hodges." It still amazed her that the offish David Hodges could be so devoted to Gemma and her daughter. As soon as he heard that Gemma was hurt, he insisted that he come with Catherine to the hospital. He commandeered the traumatized little girl, entertaining her while Catherine dealt with Gemma and the doctors. For that, Catherine was grateful.

"War-"

"He's on his way. Nick is bringing him in." Catherine saw the younger woman relax at her words. "I've got to ask, Gemma……did you see who did this to you?"

"no….too….fast."

"Damn." Catherine spat angrily. Random acts of violence were rarely easy to solve.

"Voice…….mess…..age……Warrick." Gemma struggled to open her eyes, tears leaking out of them from the pain and effort. "stop……case."

"He wanted you to tell Warrick to stop working on a case?" Catherine pieced the words together and questioned to make sure she understood her correctly. "The Holcomb?"

"Ye…ss" Gemma grunted, finally managing to get one eye open. Her left eye was swollen shut but her right was simply bruised, but heavily bloodshot.

Hearing a commotion in the hall, Catherine knew that Warrick had arrived. She quickly told the injured woman. "Don't say anything about that to Warrick just yet."

Warrick came flying into the room. Jessica clinging to his hip. "Oh god!" He called out, nearly tripping over himself to get to her. "Gemma!" He choked out, leaning over to place a kiss on her lips. Gemma kissed him back, with a cry of pain. After a moment of family togetherness, Catherine eased the girl out of Warrick's grasp and took her out into the hall where Nick, Greg and Hodges stood, looking worried and angry.

"How the hell did this happen, Catherine!" David demanded.

"She just told me that it was a warning to Warrick to lay off the Holcomb case." Catherine whispered, just in case Warrick was listening, although highly doubtful. "I suggest we don't tell him. He's got enough on his plate right now. We don't want him going for blood."

"What do we do?" Nick questioned, his mind whirling with emotions and ideas.

"Greg, you need to go pick up Grams. We can't let them have another opportunity to threaten us." Catherine decided. "I'll get Brass to have guards posted outside this room at all times."

"Warrick's going to know something is up." David told her dryly. . "Even distraught, he's going to notice the armed guards. How do you supposed we explain it to him without telling him the threat?"

"He's not going to leave her side right now, I'll let Gil break it to him when he gets here. He and Sofia are on their way here." Catherine shifted the little girl to her other hip.

"What do I do with Grams when I get her?" Greg questioned. Hodges came over and took Jessica from her. The little girl snuggled into his chest, looking worn out

"Meet me at the Rampart. Jessica and I will go pick up Lindsey. Sam can supply a better guard than we can." Catherine decided. Sometimes it paid to have a high powered father, even if he was a dirty murderer. He cared about Lindsey, and for that she could almost forgive his sins. "Do any of you have any family that could be in danger?"

"With exception of you and Warrick, CSI's don't have personal lives." Nick grimaced. "Times like these, I'm actually grateful for that."

"What about her?" Greg motioned to the redhead standing a few feet away, trying to look like she wasn't listening to them. Catherine looked over at her and frowned.

"Who is she?" She looked from Greg to Nick.

"She's our guide to the other realm." Nick bit out sarcastically. "She's a psychic. She sees dead people."

"I'm Lucy Malone. I'm not a psychic, I'm a medium." Lucy held out her had to the lady, who was obviously the one in charge. "I've come to help."

"She has information about the case." Greg explained, shooting Nick an irritated glare. "She's been right so far. I mean, about Gemma and all." As he said that, his eyes enlarged with dread. "Cath? What about the baby?"

Catherine sighed, glancing at Jessica who was leaning heavily on David's shoulder, without a word, she shook her head sadly. There was a moment of silence as the men took in the information and mourned.

"Poor Gemma." Hodges sighed, his high-pitched voice breaking with emotion.

"Warrick is going to kill whoever did this." Nick groaned, thinking about how happy the man had been, just a few hours before. Warrick was going to be ripped apart, hurting and wanting to hurt someone. "We can't leave him alone for a moment when he finds out."

"Hodges? Can you handle it here?" Catherine questioned.

"Yeah, I'll stay on him. You guys go. Get the bas-" He paused, remembering the little girl in his arms. "Just get them."


	5. Chapter 5

"Who is this?" Sam looked down at Jessica with a friendly smile. Jessica looked up at him, too traumatized to be willing to make new friends. She clung to Gram's hand and wouldn't let it go.

"This is Jessica, Warrick's little girl." Catherine explained. "And his grandmother, Grams."

"He has a little girl?" Sam frowned. "She doesn't look much like him. I didn't know any of your co-workers had children, besides you."

"You'd be surprised." Catherine smirked, not willing to tell him about Gemma's relationship to Gil. She didn't know if she could fully trust the man. She wanted to keep some of her secrets until she needed to share them. "He's married. His wife was attacked."

"And you want me to keep the kid safe?" Sam studied her.

"Yeah. Lindsey too." For a fleeting moment, she wondered if he was somehow involved with all this. As always, Sam could read her.

"I don't hurt kids." He defended himself. "I'm not in on any of this missing kids thing. Kids are to be protected, at all costs."

"Thank you for that, Sam." Catherine sighed, feeling slightly relieved that he wouldn't use Jessica to his advantage.

"Warrick." Sam shook his head, frowning. "I thought there was something going on between you and that young man."

Shooting a glance at Grams, Catherine shook her head and smiled. "Yes, friendship. He's one of my best friends. I love his wife, too."

"Ant Cattwin?" Jessica revived herself, enough to tug on Catherine's pants.

"What Sweetie?" Catherine knelt down to be at her level.

"Will you wash my clothes? Mommy will be mad cuz I got it messy." The little girl asked nervously. Catherine frowned at the blood smeared shirt, knowing that it would never come clean. "The bad man gotted bwood on it."

"I know, he hurt Mommy. When you touched Mommy, you got blood on your pretty shirt." Catherine reached over and played with the girls hair. "Mommy won't be mad."

"It's not Mommy's Ant Cattwin." Jessica insisted. "Bad man's bwood."

"Honey? How did you get the bad man's blood on you?"

"I bited him. Hard!" Jessica looked uneasy. "Made him bweed. You gonna tell Daddy? He say it bad to bite. He gonna be mad at me!"

"No, honey, he's not going to be mad at you." Catherine pulled the girl into her embrace. "He's going to be so proud of you! You were protecting Mommy! You're the reason we're going to catch this bad man!"

Twenty minutes later, Catherine left with Jessica's shirt secured in an evidence bag. This was the break they needed to catch these monsters. Arriving at the lab, she found Hodges there in the Trace lab. "What are you doing here? I thought you were watching Warrick?"

"Sara's there." Hodges shrugged, looking at her hands in interest. "Got something for me?"

"Jessica's shirt. She bit the bastard! She bit him! She said this is his blood!" Catherine gushed. "That poor little girl was embarrassed that she bit him! If this is his blood, she's cracked open our case! Not only was she wearing evidence, but that bastard has her teeth marks on the back of his thigh!"

"Let's hope you're right." David took the shirt. "And that he's in the system. Won't do us any good to have DNA without something to compare it too."

"It'll be there, it has to be there." Catherine insisted with a sigh. "Rush?"

"Of course, you don't have to ask me that. It's Gemma and Warrick." David sniffed, offended that she would even ask. "Nothing would stop me from running this."

"I know." Catherine realized she had hurt his feelings. "I'm sorry, I'm just……excited."

Warrick sat beside his sleeping wife, weeping softly. Although her injuries were not life threatening, her pain was so sever they had an I.V. drip of pain meds running into her. The doctor had tried to break the news of the miscarriage as gently as possible, but he had felt like the doctor had ripped out his heart.

Gemma had been so doped up on meds that he doubted it had even registered. He didn't look forward to telling her about it. The only saving grace in all this was that Jessica had come out of it unscathed. He sat there, fuming in his helplessness. He wanted to find the animal who did this, and he wanted to rip his heart out with his bare hands.

Nick sat slouching in the chair across from Grissom. Never one that enjoyed being called to the principal's office, he waited for Grissom to get on with it. Grissom was tired and upset over Gemma, his eye's bloodshot and he rubbed his head as if he were in pain.

"You took a possible suspect to the crime scene?" Grissom finally ground out. "What were you thinking?"

"Technically, she took us to the scene. Greg and I were stranded without a mode of transportation." Nick decided that perhaps the blame wouldn't be solely on him. "I was against it, but Greg-"

"Greg? Nick, you are the Senior CSI. It's your job to show him what should and should not be done." Grissom growled.

"I know, but….this isn't the normal case. It's evolved into something bigger. Your daughter is laying in a hospital right now all because of some case that we can't solve."

"Nick we've been trough this before. We can't let our personal feelings get the best of us. We look at every case the same way. Follow the evidence, no matter where it takes us."

Nick took a deep cleansing breath, trying not to lose his cool. His boss and mentor, didn't know any other way to go about it. "I don't work that way. You know it, and I know it. I'm not going to change. Warrick is my best friend, my brother, and that makes Gemma my family. I can't pretend she's not someone special. That baby was going to me my niece or nephew. They killed it and I want them to pay. I can't let them get away with hurting my family."

"Warrick must have been on to something." Grissom frowned, changing the subject as if Nick hadn't just made an impassioned speech. "I want you to retrace his steps, see what he was looking into. That may be the key to this case."

"I don't think it was Warrick." Nick shook his head. "It was a known fact that the four of us were doing the investigating. Warrick was the only one they could get to."

"What?"

"Think about it. What do you and I have that we care about? You have Gemma, but no one outside of our team knows that. Do either of us have something that means anything to us? Or Greg? Nothing. Hell, we don't even have pets, outside of your bugs. We live, eat and sleep for our job. Warrick's not like that anymore. He's got Gemma. He's got Jessica." Nick explained. "He's got a weakness now. So, they went after him."

"You could be right. I've went over his notes. Nothing was panning out." Grissom picked up Warrick's folder and then threw it back down in disgust. Catherine came flying into the office without knocking. Looking up at the flushed woman, he said in a sardonic tone. "Yes, Catherine, come on in."

"She bit him! She bit the bastard!"

"Who? Who bit whom?" Gil gave her his patented Grissom look.

"Jess! She bit the man that attacked Gemma!" Catherine threw the words at him in a rush. "She bit the sucker hard enough to draw blood! She has his blood on her shirt. The bastard has her teeth marks on him! Hodges is running trace on it! We've got the bas-"

"Whoa!" Grissom held his hands up in surrender. "Slow down. This is a four year olds word your running with."

"She's not one to lie." Nick cut in, excited.

"She was afraid she'd get in trouble." Catherine prattled on, ignoring Grissom's cynicism. "That little girl has already accomplished more than any of us trained CSI's have."

"Let's just wait until we get word from Hodges, on whether we start planning our victory party." Outwardly, Grissom was calm, but he started feeling the excitement building inside. He quickly tamped it down, he would not show them that he could feel emotions.


	6. Chapter 6

Chapter 6

"I'm sorry." Gemma whispered. Warrick, having been in a half-sleep stooper, jolted awake.

"What?" He leaned forward.

"I'm sorry" Gemma repeated in a soft whisper. Tears were in her red-rimmed eyes.

"What for?" Warrick took her hand in his, concerned about her emotional state.

"I let your baby die." Gemma broke into sobs.

"No Darling! No, no, no! It wasn't your fault!" Warrick insisted. Seeing that she wasn't going to calm down, he put the side rail down and crawled onto the bed beside her. Gentle as he could, he wrapped his arms around her. "It wasn't your fault."

"I should have taken better care." Gemma whimpered, pressing her face into his shoulder, seeking the comfort he offered. "I let your baby die!"

"Our baby." Warrick corrected in a whisper, kissing her temple. "There wasn't anything you could have done. The baby was murdered. I was so afraid I'd lose you too……..I'll get whoever did this. I promise…..I'll kill the monster!"

"No!" Gemma's tears stopped as she looked up at him worriedly. "I want him in prison, not you. I need you here with me. You promised me forever."

"Yeah, I did." Warrick kissed her face, finding places that wasn't bruised or swollen. "You've got me forever. In fact,…..forever doesn't seem long enough for me."

Catherine came into the hospital room quietly and stopped at the foot of the bed. She saw that the two occupants of the bed were sound asleep, holding one another closely in the small bed. She stood there a moment, watching them sleep, feeling a twinge of jealousy curling around in her gut.

"To be loved like that." She thought, slowly backing out of the room. She found a seat in the hallway, suddenly feeling depressed. Warrick was a good man, loving and devoted to his family. Catherine had tried marriage, it had only caused heartache for her and her daughter.

More than once, she'd thought about Warrick in that way. Wondering how it would be to be loved by a good man. She never attracted good, decent men like him. She always seemed to find the bad apples of the bunch. She knew that there had been times that Warrick had looked at her in interest. There was once that they nearly kissed, only stopped by the approach of another. It hadn't been work risking their friendship or career to chase the fleeting desire.

She didn't resent Gemma. She was happy that Warrick had found someone who made him happy. Catherine wanted what Gemma had with Warrick, but not Warrick. She wanted love. She wanted devotion. She wanted a man she could feel safe with. She wanted a man who could lay there, holding her as he chased away her pain and sorrow. She took a deep breath, steeling herself to the fact that that kind of love just wasn't in the books for her.

"Cath?" Greg Sanders was suddenly standing in front of her, holding a bouquet of roses. He looked like the Greg of old, hair every which direction, ratted jeans, an old Guns and Roses concert shirt that had seen better days. The image of him standing before her like that, made her smile. "Whatcha doing out here?"

"Hi Greg……they're asleep." She looked towards the door. "They've had such a rough time…..I didn't want to disturb them."

"You okay?" Greg sat down beside her, looking worriedly at her.

"This is pretty petty of me…..I'm just sitting here, feeling sorry for myself. I'm a little jealous of what they have. Go peek in at them……you can see how much they love each other."

Greg got up and peeked into the room. Coming back, he was smiling. "Rick is really lucky, I mean to have found Gemma. Too bad Gris didn't have another daughter for me."

"It still amazes me that he has one." Catherine chuckled. "Should have known that Gil would find a way to make Warrick his son."

"You think he set them up, by having Warrick protect her last year?" Greg looked shocked by the idea. "I mean, did he want them to hook up?"

"He's always treated Warrick like a son." Catherine shrugged. "I know his first concern was to have Gemma and Jess safe……but maybe…..in the back of his mind, he considered the possibilities."

"They really are good together. I don't think they'd be mad if he had." Greg looked back at the room with a smile then shrugged it off. "Come on, I'll by you some dinner." Greg held out the roses to her, bowing elegantly. With a wry chuckle, Catherine accepted.

"Come on, Goof." She rose, taking him by the arm, she led him to the elevators.

Nick glared at the woman who was glaring back at him. "You don't believe me?" She demanded, "Have you questioned the mother? Followed her?"

"I have no evidence for that!" Nick snarled. 'No judge is going to give me a warrant because you think you see dead people! I'm a Scientist! I believe in what I can see. What I can prove."

It amazed him how angry this woman was making him. He generally got along with everyone. It took a lot for someone to make him mad. This woman pissed him off every time she spoke to him.

"I've told you the truth! Look into that and you'll find your precious proof!" She spat out the word as if it were a curse word. Poking her finger into his chest, she insisted, "Those girls could be being hurt right now because you are too busy hum-hawing around, waiting for proof. You're an uncaring as-butthead! That is what you are!"

"Look…..I'm really sorry you feel that way. A CSI has to deal with the evidence. We can't just go around on feelings and hunches!" Nick was shocked. No one had ever called him a butthead. (and he knew what she had almost called him) No one had ever called him uncaring. Grissom had constantly been on his case for making cases too personal. Even Warrick had said that he was too empathetic to the victims. Now this woman, this stranger was saying he was too hard hearted?

"What about Mr. Pearson? He died trying to help you. Are you telling me, you don't believe that he knew you were in danger?"

"No." Nick sighed. "I believe that he knew something was up, but there's still no way to prove it."

"You disgust me! Those little girls are in danger and you're sitting here, twiddling your thumbs! Waiting for proof!" Lucy flared, her cheeks flaming red with her anger. "Would you still be alive if your friends had done nothing but wait for evidence?"

"What?" Nick's head whipped around to face her, so hard that he felt muscles snapping in protest. "What are you talking about?"

"I think you know exactly what I'm talking about." She looked at him, seeing his pallor, she grew contrite. "I'm sorry to bring it up but, I had to make my point. These girls are as good as in a box like you were. Time is ticking away for them."

"My hands are tied." Nick informed her.

"Well, mine aren't! Lucy snarled, hurrying out the door. Slamming it loudly behind her. Nick sat there, fuming. Lucy was right and so was he. The girls were suffering because of his inability to do anything. He felt the pressure and guilt riding heavily on his shoulders.

Jumping up, he hustled after her. He caught up with her as she got into her car. "Alright, what do you suggest we do?"

"Debra showed me a place. I'm going to try and find it."

"Let's start at the lab." Nick climbed into the Taurus. Lucy shot him a glance, but didn't say anything as she started the car. To fill in the silence, he added. "We've got some extensive map programs, maybe we can pinpoint the area."

"You sound as if you believe me?" Lucy looked at him with new interest.

"I never said that I didn't believe you. I've just stated that I can't run a case on the word of a clair-uh….medium."

"Thank you for that!" Lucy smiled at him, a big Julia Roberts type smile. Nick quickly turned away from her. It was bad enough that she could make him mad enough to spit nails, she didn't need to make his pulse raise too.


	7. Chapter 7

Chapter 7

"Jarrod David Carrey." Hodges dropped the print out on the table in front of Gil. "He's got quite a rap sheet."

"Jim?" Grissom looked over at Brass.

"I'll make a call, have him brought in." Brass immediately stood up.

"Once he's in custody….I'll have to call Warrick. He'll want to be involved with the initial interview." Gil informed him.

"You do what you think is right." Brass frowned. "Do you think you'll be able to control him?" He had to ask, "The perp could go free of Warrick touches him."

"Yeah, He'll be fine." Gil surmised. Mentally, he questioned whether he would be able to control himself. He wanted to hurt the man that had hurt his little girl. Now that he was openly her father, he suddenly had all the symptoms of a protective father. He had lived a long time without the feeling of helpless rage he know had inside of him. It was a new experience for him, and he wondered how do get rid of it. Gil Grissom definitely did NOT like being unable to control his emotions.

Jim had left the door to his office open when her departed, Gil looked up in time to see Nick walking by with the Malone woman. He frowned heavily as the rage transferred to irritation. Getting up, he followed Nick down the hall to the A/V lab. "Nick!"

Nick had just sat down at a computer, and jumped guiltily, spinning around to face Gil. "Yeah, Hey Boss!" He tried to win him over with a smile.

Grissom didn't look impressed as he glared at him, "I'd like to talk to you Nick." Nick swallowed roughly and nodded in agreement, albeit, nervously. "Please escort your guest into the break room or the lounge and met me in my office."

"Yeah, Boss!" Nick grimaced as Gil walked out of the room. Nick gave Lucy a pained look. "Let me show you to the break room."

"I've gotten you in trouble?" Lucy commented, looking only partly upset. Nick narrowed his eyes to glare at her. The dang woman looked like she was about to laugh at him!

Sara was sitting in the break room, reading a stack of files, a half-eaten muffin lay beside her, forgotten. She glanced up as Nick and Lucy entered. "Hey Sara, this is Lucy Malone. I've gotta go talk with Gris. Lucy's gonna sit in here. You okay with that?" Without waiting for a comment from either woman, Nick hustled his way back to Grissom's office.

Sara eyed the taller woman. "Sit down, I've heard about you."

"Probably that I'm a loony, right." She stuck her thumb in the direction that Nick had gone.

"No, Greg told me about you. Says you can make Nick loose his nice boy attitude. I'm impressed." Sara grinned. "There's coffee, want some?"

"No thanks. I've gotten him into trouble." Lucy sat down across from Sara with a smile. "I bullied him into letting me help and now your boss is ticked."

"He'll be fine. Nick has managed to screw up from time to time without Grissom drawing any blood. Nick will be fine." Sara chuckled. "Did you really say he was rude? Nick is never rude."

"He was to me." Lucy shrugged. She eyed the muffin. "Is that pumpkin?"

"You want it?" Sara moved the muffin half towards the woman. Any woman who could get the best of Nick Stokes was going to be her friend. She had seen the man cry, she'd seen him upset, but never had, what the nightshift called, his Texas Charm slipped. From what Greg had said, it not only slipped but disappeared all together.

Lucy reached over to take the muffin, absently bumping hands with Sara. She gasped and her eyes widened as she gaped at the dark haired woman. Sara looked back at her, narrowing her eyes in near distrust. "What?"

"The one with the injured wife……he's going to attack your suspect. He needs to be watched."

"How do you know?"

"Someone just whispered it in my ear. He'll be in a little room with windows. You man, the tall one, will attack the man. He needs to be held back, or you'll lose the only chance of finding the girls that you have."

The observation room was crowded. The CSI team was standing shoulder to shoulder, looking through the window at the man. The man looked exactly like the scum that he was. Dark hair slicked back. A nose that looked like it'd been broken many times before. He eyed the three men on the opposite side of the table with a sneer.

Grissom and Warrick had been allowed to sit in on the interview. Jim had made Warrick promise to stay seated, away from the suspect. Warrick sat on the back table, glaring angrily at the man. This was the scum that had hurt his wife. The scum that had ended the new life of their unborn child. He felt red-hot rage running through his veins. He clenched his jaw, trying to control himself, but it was hard. His instinct was to throw himself across the table and rip out the man's jugular.

"Well, Mr. Carrey, do you have anything to say for yourself?" Jim demanded. Grissom sat calmly beside him, watching the man in typical Grissom fashion, no emotions were visible. Only those who truly knew him could tell that he was as angry and disgusted as Warrick was.

"Nope. You ain't got nothing on me." The burly man snarled at Jim, a fist pounded on the table. The CSI's looked at the fist, imagining how it had pounded into Gemma. Sara slowly reached up and caressed the butt end of her gun, imagining that she could use it on the man.

"On the contrary. We have you. We4 have evidence against you. We have witnesses. We've got you!" Jim gave him an evil smile. It was the smile he saved for the guys he really hated.

"I'm advising my client not to reply to any comment that you might make." The court appointed lawyer piped up. He was young, fresh faced, and looked as if he were frightened of his own client. "If you really had anything against him, we wouldn't be in this room talking to you. We'd be in front of a judge."

"We are here offering Mr. Carrey the opportunity to help himself out. He can tell us where the Holcomb girls are and we can put a good word in for him with the judge." Jim looked straight at the man when he said this.

"I ain't telling you shit!" Carrey snarled, spitting at Jim. "You ain't got squat on me!"

"Assault. Attempted Murder. Endangering the life of a child. Murder One." Jim gave him that smile again. "We have witnesses. The woman you attacked….she survived, but then, you wanted her to, didn't you. Her little girl saw you. You remember the little girl, don't you? She's the one that led us to you."

Grissom pulled out the bite impression from the file he had brought with him. Greg had taken the impression from Jessica's mouth. "She hurt you, didn't she?" Grissom questioned calmly. "Care to show us the little souvenir she left you with? Human jaws can be strong. A human bite is pretty painful, even one from a terrified little girl."

"The little bitch!" Carrey grumbled. Warrick rose up, hands clenching powerfully at his sides as he surged forward. Jim put a straining hand on his chest, holding him where he was.

"Warrick." Gil warned him before turning his attention back on the man. "You see, Mr. Carrey. That little frightened girl, protecting her mother, not only stopped you but she gave us your blood. Your DNA. She also left her mark on you. Shall we check and compare?"

"Do you have a warrant?" The lawyer cut in nervously. The small man was trembling, seeing the barely controlled anger in the towering black man. He swallowed fearfully, imagining what the man could do if his control was unleashed.

"Yes, we do." Jim slapped the papers on the table. "And even if we didn't, we have Warrick here. He'd be willing to make sure that Mr. Carrey complied with our request. You see…..It was Warrick's wife and child your client attacked. His unborn child that Mr. Carrey beat out of Gemma Brown."

"Drop your pants Mr. Carrey." Gil added smugly.

"I should have killed that Nigger loving Bitch!" Carrey hissed. Warrick let out a strangled sound and rammed past Jim. As fast as he was, Nick was there, pulling him back before he had a chance to touch the creep.

It took Nick, Jim, Gil and Greg to pull the irate man out of the room. Warrick fought against them, wanting to get at the man. "You Son-of-a-Bitch!" Warrick screamed at the shut door. Gil gave Nick a warning glance before he and Jim went back into the interrogation room.

Nick had Warrick pressed against the wall as the man worked out his anger by screaming. "I wanna kill that Son-of-a-Bitch!" Warrick finally declared, as the fight suddenly left him. He went as limp as a rag doll. The only thing that kept him upright was the pressure Nick was using to hold him to the wall.

"We all do." Nick agreed. "I swear, we all would if given the chance."

Greg stood beside them, breathing heavily from the exertion of their struggle with Warrick. He watched the bigger man with concern and a little fear. He'd seen Warrick angry, but never like this. It had amazed him that Warrick could be brought down to such an animalistic level. He wondered if this was all part of the love that Catherine envied. Was it love that reduced the ever controlled Warrick into this puddle of emotions? "Is he going to be okay?"

"Yeah, he's fine." Nick nodded, releasing Warrick carefully so that he stood leaning against the wall on his own. "Come on, Bro. I'll take you back to Gemma."

"Yeah." Warrick nodded. "I'd like that. I'd like to see Jessica too."

"I think we can arrange that, Bro." Nick agreed, talking softly as he took Warrick by the upper arm, leading the exhausted man down the hall. A few feet away, Nick paused. "Greggo? You coming?"

"Yeah!" Greg eagerly jogged to catch up with them, surprised to be included. The two older men had each played the part of his teacher while he was training to be a CSI. No one had asked them to help, they had simply taken him under their wings, giving him tips and advice. Now, they were including him in their friendship and Greg felt honored.


	8. Chapter 8

Chapter 8

Nick led Warrick and Greg through the hotel up to Sam Braun's private suite. Warrick was frowning heavily, but he refrained from commenting. Greg was not as controlled. "What are we doing here? Is Jessica here? Why?"

"Catherine arranged it." answered as the elevator stopped on the top floor. Three large men were standing there to meet them. "Sam can protect Jessica better than we can at the moment."

"You are not allowed up here." The largest of the three men stepped forward. "No one is permitted up here."

"We're CSI's" Nick flashed his identification. "It's our people in there."

"I don't care if you're Elvis, come back to life. You are not allowed up here. Leave now, before we have to hurt you."

"It's my daughter in there." Warrick growled menacingly. Although the men had him in, he wasn't about to let them intimidate him. "I just want to see that she's okay."

"Ask Grams, she'll okay us." Greg added. The man turned his attention on him, clearly knowing who he was talking about."

"Call Braun. Have him clear us. We just want to talk to the little girl, see that she's doing okay, and then we'll be on our way." Spotting a surveillance camera he went over and pecked on the lens. "Braun! Have your Goons let us in! Braun!"

One of the 'goons' but his hand to the earpiece he wore, then whispered to the head goon. "Mr. Braun says that Warrick can enter, but no one else."

Warrick frowned at this, but stepped forward. He glanced back at the other two and shrugged. "I won't be long."

"We'll wait downstairs for you." Nick agreed reluctantly. Greg passed a dirty look at the three guards before following Nick back into the elevator.

"Baby?" Grams looked up as Warrick entered the suite.

"Daddy!" Jessica charged over to him, knocking over the board game she and Lindsey had been playing. She jumped into his arms and Warrick easily caught her to him in a hug. He closed his eyes, soaking up the sweet smell of his daughter. "I've missed you Daddy? You here to take me home?"

"I'm sorry sweetie, but I'm just here to see you. I've missed you!" Warrick couldn't stop hugging her.

"Is Mommy still sick?"

"Yeah, but she's getting better." Warrick answered, feeling a huge lump in his throat.

"Is that bad man gonna huwt Mommy again?" Jessica asked. Lindsey and Grams looked at him, interested in the answer to that.

"No. Uncle Jim has him in his jail. They got him, all because of you sweetie. You're a hero." Warrick planted a kiss on her nose. "I'm very proud of you."

"You not mad at me? Cuz I bited him?" Jessica questioned, looking up at him apprehensively. "Biting is bad."

"I'm not mad at you for biting the bad man. You saved Mommy. You're the reason we got him in jail." Warrick explained, moving her to his hip, he approached his grandmother. "You doing okay here, Grams?"

"I'd rather be home, but I know you want the girls to be safe." Grams answered.

"They treating you right? Anyone bothering you?" Warrick questioned. Grams looked over at Lindsey for a moment and frowned.

"That man comes in every once in a while." She grimaced. "Stares at the girls. He's like a snake. A rattler. I keep thinking he's making a plan on when to strike at us."

"I'm sorry Grams." Warrick looked at her with concern. "If there was any other place……"

"Don't you be worrying about us girls. We're making a party of it." Grams shushed him. "You just get my Gemma-girl all better and you get the ones that are behind all this."

"We're trying, Grams. The best we can." Warrick gave his daughter another kiss, kissed his grandmother and Lindsey on their cheeks and headed to he door. At the door he paused. "If you have any trouble, you call me." He patted the cell phone he carried in his pocket. "For anything."

The CSI nightshift team, minus Warrick, gathered around the table. "Carrey is still not cooperating with us. We've secured his phone records, but he's managed to avoid leaving any sort of trail." Grissom began. "We are at a standstill again."

"What about Nick's girl, the medium?" Sara questioned, earning herself a death glare from Nick. Grissom frowned but had no comment.

"She's been right about everything so far. She knew Gemma was going to be hurt, and that she was going to lose the baby." Greg added with a sad sigh.

"She warned me that Warrick was going to lose it in the interview." Sara nodded. "If we hadn't have been warned, We would have lost Carrey."

"Nick? What do you think?" Grissom looked at the red-faced CSI.

"She has been right." Nick muttered. "She says she's seen the place the girls are in her visions. If it's our only……witness…..I don't suppose it'd hurt to give it a shot."

Greg snickered but said nothing. Sara and Catherine exchanged a womanly smile.

"Okay, Nick, Sara I want you to on the Malone woman's…..theories." Grissom decided. "Greg, I want you to chase down every number that Carrey called in the last year."

"and me?" Catherine questioned.

"They're releasing Gemma from the hospital. I need

you to arrange it for her to stay at Braun's with Jessica. The

guys had trouble gaining entrance earlier, so perhaps you could smooth things over."

"And you?" Catherine didn't look happy about it, but she didn't argue about it. "What are you going to do?"

"Jim and I are going to continue to work on our Perp, hopefully he will tell us something useful."

"Do you even think these girls are even alive. They've been missing for…..seventy-three hours?" Greg asked.

"We keep hoping they are until we find out otherwise." Grissom sighed. "No matter how much time passes, we act like they are."

"So, where do we find your girlfriend?" Sara questioned as they headed out to the parking lot. Nick gave her another glare that looked really evil. Sara was impressed.

"Lucy Malone is a Pediatric nurse. She's at work right now." Nick explained as they climbed into the rig.

"I don't suppose she'll be too happy about us storming in on her at work." Sara looked regretful.

"I'm not too concerned with her feelings. Twice now, she's shown up at my home. She's got me in trouble here at work. Times about fair play!" Nick looked rather pleased with the idea as he started up the rig.

Sara shook her head in disbelief. "You guys are all acting weird. Warrick has become Mr. Emotional. You're Mr. Pissed-off. It's a strange day when Greg is the normal guy."

"You can't really blame Warrick." Nick defended his friend. "He's a family man now."

"Yeah, but he was ready to kill that man in the interview room!" Sara reminded him. "I saw the murder in his face."

"Do you blame him? Think about how happy he was about that baby, and then that scumbag ends it for him. Nearly takes Gemma while he was at it."

"I know, but it's so unlike Warrick." Sara gave him a gap-toothed smile. "What is your excuse?"

"That woman…..gets my goat……drives me nuts!"

"She's very beautiful." Sara commented, trying to sound innocent.

"Yeah, she is. But, she's more irritating than beautiful. Pushy, loud, constantly in my face. Had the nerve to call me selfish. She brought up my experience in the box."

"How'd she know about that?" Sara demanded to know. "Who told her?"

"One of her so called dead friends is what she claimed." Nick looked sick to his stomach, and actually felt that way too. "Not exactly something I want anyone talking about…..dead or alive."

"You made it through it Nick. That's all that matters. Everyone is proud of how well you handled it." Sara told him. It was rare that Sara had something to say that wasn't negative, so Nick stored the complement in his heart and gave her his best smile.

"Thanks Sara."

"Don't let it go to your head Stokes." Sara gave him a playful glare as he put the vehicle into park in front of the medical clinic.

Nick got out reluctantly, not knowing if he really wanted to have another dealing with Lucy Malone.


	9. Chapter 9

Chapter 9

Gemma was firmly in place in Sam's suite, sound asleep. The stress of being moved from the hospital had worn her out. Warrick was pacing the main room like a caged tiger.

"Warrick, It's best if you stay here." Catherine reached out and touched his arm in an attempt to stop his pacing. "You're too involved in this case."

"No, I'm alright. It's time I did something to help." Warrick argued, sidestepping her. "Gemma's here where Grams can take care of her. I need to do something. I need to work."

"Warrick……we saw how you reacted in the interview with Carrey." Catherine stepped in front of him, blocking his path to the door. "We can't risk that. Grissom said-"

"I don't care what Grissom says!" Warrick snarled. "I need to do something! This has to end! I can't live like this. My family is trapped in this hole until this is over! I can't bring back the baby, but I can give them their freedom!"

Catherine felt for him, knowing how useless he was feeling. "Stay with Gemma tonight. Make sure that she's okay, then come in to the lab in the morning. I'll make sure there is something for you to do." Catherine offered. "Just…..no interviewing……or dealing with suspects, okay?"

"Yeah……I can deal with that." Warrick agreed with a chagrined smile.

"Warrick?" Gemma reached out for him but didn't find her husband. He hadn't been father than an arms reach from her since the first moment at the hospital. "Warrick!" she called louder.

"Gemma, baby, I'm here!" Warrick hurried to her. Turning on the beside light, he pulled her into his arms, careful not to jolt any of her injuries. The swelling had gone down, but the bruises had spread into a mottled mess of black, purple, blue, yellow and red.

"I thought you'd left me." Gemma murmured into his chest.

"Never, baby, never. You're stuck with me forever. I keep telling you that." Warrick rocked her gently.

"I love you, Warrick."

"Almost as much as I love you, I bet." Curling up beside her, he confessed, "But,….I will be leaving you for a little while. I'm going to work tomorrow. I'm going to help the team find those little girls."

"Do you think anyone can?"

"We will, if anyone can." Warrick admitted. "Nick has a lead. There's a woman who seems to know things."

"Is she involved?" Gemma questioned, running a bandaged hand down his arm.

"No…..I guess not……she hears the voices of the dead or something like that. She told Nick and Greg about your attack…at the very moment it was happening." Warrick rolled onto his back, carefully taking her with him. "She warned them that I was going to try to kill your attacker."

"Warrick! Tell me you didn't!"

"I started to. They stopped me." Warrick divulged hesitantly. "I would have……I think."

"Promise me…..you won't ever do anything like that again. I can't lose you. You promised me I could have you forever."

"I promise. I'll behave." Warrick sealed it with a gentle kiss.

"You are the Pigheaded-est woman I have ever met!" Nick bellowed. "Get this through your thick skull, You are NOT going with us!"

"Well, Stokes, then find your own way. I'm going or the information stays here with me!" Lucy leaned forward, in his face as she yelled back. Sara rolled her eyes and sat back down for the duration of the fight. She considered offering them some boxing gloves. The two had been butting heads for the past twenty-five minutes. "You can take your chauvinistic attitude and go chase your tails like you've doing without my help for the past three days!"

"Chauvinistic? How the-?" Nick shook his head in confusion, stepping away from the woman. "You know, I think what they say about redheads being hotheads is right!"

"Really you guys, this isn't helping at all." Sara cut in. "Could you please wait until after your married to have these squabbles? Right now, we're trying to rescue a couple of little girls."

"I…"Nick stopped, "She…."

"Give it a rest Cowboy." Lucy snapped. "I'm not going to keep arguing with you. Sara is right, it's the kids that are important!" Turning her back to Nick, she asked Sara, "What do we do first?"

Gil sat at his desk listening to the sheriff and Ecklie drone on about how lousy of a job he and his team were doing on the case. Finally after half an hour of listening, or pretending to listen, he couldn't hold himself back. "Conrad, you've looked over the case files. Is there something you think I've missed? Because if so, I'm more than happy to let you have a crack at it."

Ecklie pursed his lips and turned a deep maroon to the top of his bald head. He didn't reply to Gil's challenge. Gil gave him a satisfied smirk and stood up. "This lecture is over. Now, If you'll excuse me, I'm going to go do my job."

"I hate that guy." Ecklie muttered after Grissom was out of earshot. "I really do."

"Cath?" Greg motioned for Catherine to come closer. He sat at the break room table, computer print outs were spread from one end to the other. "I think I might have something."

"What? Catherine set her coffee cup down, unfilled and hurried over to lean over Greg's shoulder.

"Carrey made three two minute phone calls on the twenty-fourth of November, to the same number. Once at noon and again at ten to midnight."

"And? What's special about that?"

"The number is to Jillian Holcomb's cell phone." Greg looked up at her, expecting some sort of reaction.

"You may just have something. Take it to Gil, Brass can bring Carrey back in and you can ask him about it." Catherine gave him an affectionate squeeze on the shoulder.

"ME?" Greg gaped at her. "You have got be kidding!"

"It's your finding, you run with it." Catherine frowned at him as if he were insane.

"But this is a major case. Surely Grissom won't want me going in with Carrey!" Greg shook his head.

"Greg, you are not a rookie anymore. You've been a CSI for a year and a half now, you are perfectly capable of doing the interview."

"That's really cool of you to say that." Greg beamed up at Catherine. "Really cool."

"Well, don't just sit here, take it to Gil." Catherine poked him.

"Oh! Yeah!" Greg jumped up, grabbing his printouts, he ran towards Gil's office.

"Aren't you coming in with me?" Greg looked wide-eyed at Gil.

"No, this is all yours." Gil shook his head. "You and Jim have got this covered. Gil gave a semi-smile as Greg swallowed roughly. "You'll do fine."

"Okay." Greg said in a quick rush of air. "I'm ready!"

Jim was waiting for Greg at the interview room doorway. He quirked an eyebrow up at Gil as Greg approached him, but said nothing. He was curious how the kid was going to handle this.

Gil slipped into the observation room to join Catherine. "You think he's ready for this?"

"Of course he's ready. He's been watching us do this. He's got it covered." Catherine assured him. "Besides, He's with Jim, he'll keep him from getting in trouble."


	10. Chapter 10

Greg was wishing someone had warned him how small the interview could feel as he made his way to the chair next to Jim. Carrey was already seated next to his lawyer.

"What do you have that's so important that you bring my client out at this late hour?" The lawyer questioned. He seemed more sure of himself this time. Jim wondered if it was the absence of Warrick that gave the kid some backbone. Greg was clearly one of the brightest CSI rookies they'd hired in years. Jim Brass would know, being that he was once the leader of this rag-tag crew. The ex-lab rat may be bright, but he was still wet behind the ears as far as Brass could tell.

Greg was nervous. He looked at the man he was to interview and swallowed roughly. As he stared at the man, he was surprised when he actually felt a surge of hate run through him. This man had hurt Gemma and that was unforgivable. Long before he became a CSI, the team had taken him in as a friend. Now, the CSI's were his family. That made Gemma part of his family.

Thinking about what this man had done to Warrick's family, Greg lost the sensation of fear. He was angry. He couldn't physically attack the man like Warrick had, but he could us his wits against him. He was determined to get this guy to tell him something. He glared at the man, Carrrey glared back.

"We have evidence that your client had contacted Jillian Holcomb before the kidnapping. After the kidnapping, he attacks the family of one of the investigating officers. Gave the message to his attack victim to have the investigator back off the case. We're here to hear his reasoning for this." Brass smiled benignly at the lawyer.

The lawyer looked at Carrey expectantly. Carrey said nothing, he simply glared at Jim and Greg.

"We've got the evidence." Greg pulled out his printouts. "You called Jillian Holcomb twice back in November, wanna tell us why?"

"Wrong number?" Carrey smirked.

"No." Greg disagreed. "A wrong number lasts thirty to forty-five seconds max. You talked for over two minutes, then you called back twelve hours later. Care to explain that for real? She telling you when and where to nab her kids?"

"I didn't have anything to those kids! I had nothing to do with the kidnapping!" Carrey hollered, slamming his cuffed hands onto the table.

"If you weren't the one to kidnap the Holcomb girls, then why would you attack Gemma Brown?" Greg taunted with a sneer. "We've already proven you've attacker her…let's hear why. Did you get paid to attack her or did you just do it because you're too stupid to know better."

In the observation room, Gil grimaced as he grew nervous. "Shut up Greg!" He muttered to himself.

"No. He's doing a great job." Catherine disagreed. "Look at how Carrey is reacting. Greg has him flustered."

"I mean….what exactly was the purpose for the attack, if not for money?" Greg continued to taunt. "You get off on beating pregnant women half to death? "

"She paid me!" Carrey snarled, leaning forward across the table as far as the shackles would let him. "She paid me five thousand bucks!"

"Who?" Jim demanded.

"I think this interview is over." The lawyer stuttered nervously.

"Five thousand dollars to beat up a woman? Did it make you feel like a man?" Greg continued as if the lawyer hadn't spoke. "Is that the only way you can feel powerful?"

"No. I needed the dough."

"Sounds reasonable." Greg looked as if he was considering it. "So who is this person that hired you to beat the woman?"

"The Holcomb woman."

"Jillian Holcomb hired you to beat Gemma Brown?" Greg questioned.

"Yeah, wanted me to put the hurt on one of the CSI's, she'd looked it up, Brown was the only one that could be hurt. She wanted his woman hurt, to get his attention." Carrey explained.

"He's good." Gil smiled, his Grissom smile, proud of the young CSI. "He worked the scumbag over perfectly."

"So, will you let him do the interview with Holcomb?" Catherine questioned, smiling playfully.

"He can sit in." Gil smirked. "He doesn't get to take all the credit for this."

Warrick sat around the break room table with Nick, Sara and Lucy Malone. He'd just met the woman, but he liked her. She had a sharp tongue when it came to Nick and a wry sense of humor.

She patiently described the building she'd seen in her vision again and again even as Nick complained and whined about the futility of the project. Sara ignored the both except for an occasional reminder that they were working.

"When this is all over." Warrick told her. "I'd like for you to meet my wife."

"Oh Geez!" Nick muttered loud enough that Lucy heard him.

"Stuff a sock in it Stokes." She growled before turning her attention to Warrick. "I'd really like that Warrick. I'm really sorry….that I wasn't able to warn you about the attack in time. Sometimes…..the things I'm told….are kind of in code. The images I saw……were scrambled."

"What did you see?" Warrick questioned, his big green eyes liquid with emotion.

"I saw you…..a silhouette of you……tall and dark." Lucy tried to explain the images that had been put into her head. "Your hands…….your finger with the wedding band. Tears falling onto the band. The monitor of a heart beat…..blood."

"And you got….that my wife was being beaten from that?" Warrick questioned, swallowing roughly as he thought of the images she described.

"Later, as I was talking to Stokes, the images came again, but this time……someone whispered to me that you were his friend. Debra told me that she would take care of your baby." Lucy had tears in her eyes as she watched Warrick rise from his seat and pace over to the doorway. He stood there, staring out into the empty hall as he tried to control his emotions.

His voice was rough with emotion as he asked. "Was that it? Did you see or hear anything else?"

"Lucy-" Nick growled in warning. She looked to Sara for help, but found the woman battling tears of her own.

"Lucy?"

"Debra told me that you would soon have another child." Lucy sighed.

Warrick nodded as if accepting the idea. "We won't let this take us down. I've lived a long time looking for the happiness I've got with Gemma. He turned, quickly wiping a tear from his cheek. "I've lived my whole life with just Grams for family. I can be happy with having my wife and our one child. I don't have to have a son or anything. My three ladies are all I need. They're everything I need."

Lucy heard a whisper in her ear, but ignored it. Warrick didn't need anymore confusion in his life right now. The changes that would appear in his family life could wait until later. Save the new confusion for when it came naturally. Turning back to Sara, she caught Nick studying her as if he could read her mind and could tell that she was hiding something from Warrick.

She frowned at him as another whisper came to her. She mentally shook it off, unable to accept it. An image of Nick holding a little girl swam before her eyes. It wasn't just any little girl. He was holding Kelly Holcomb and they were sitting in her living room. The cozy scene unnerved her and she glared at Nick as if it were his fault.

Nick read her expression and rolled his eyes. "Could you please leave Warrick alone. Go do your hocus-pocus act at the circus."

"Stokes……bite me." Lucy rolled her eyes. Sara chuckled, trying to disguise it in a discreet cough. Warrick on the other hand, hooted with laughter.


	11. Chapter 11

Chapter 11

Gil eyed the politician before them. They had a witness that claimed she was behind the attack of Gemma Brown. The attack of Gemma Brown was brought on by their investigation of the Holcomb girls kidnapping. It all seemed to lead back to the woman before him.

No matter how long he did this job, it always amazed him the things people did to one another. From where this case was taking him, he was beginning to think the Jillian Holcomb had had her own children kidnapped.

Greg was sitting back on the desk like Warrick always did. Gil mentally smiled, the young man had taken to mimicking the older CSI's. He didn't think Greg needed to. Yesterday's interrogation on Carrey had proven that he could hold his own.

Brass eyed the woman and began the interview. "Mrs. Holcomb,…..how do you know Jarrod Carrey?"

"Who?" The politician had a good poker face. Gil suddenly wished Warrick was in the room. The ex-gambler could read a poker face better than he could. But, Warrick was too involved with this, he couldn't be brought into the interviews again. They'd already learned their lesson with that one.

"Mrs. Holcomb, we have phone records showing that you and Carrey were in contact. As we speak, your own phone records are being searched. Carrey, himself, has testified that you hired him to attack Gemma Brown and leave the message to cease the search for your children." Gil wasn't in the mood to beat around the bush. "We believe that you had your own children kidnapped. Care to elaborate why?"

"I don't know what you're talking about." Jillian gave Gil a look of pure hatred.

"I think you do. Just tell us where your daughters are, and it will go better for you." Jim commanded angrily.

"You have nothing on me." she smirked. Gil saw a glint of something in her eyes and frowned. She was enjoying this.

Nick rubbed his eyes as they watered. They had spent the last hour looking over the phone records of Jillian Holcomb but they had come up with nothing. The woman was bright enough to know not to use her own phones to contact the kidnappers.

"Maybe we should have your girlfriend check this over." Sara suggested with a grin. Nick glared at her, refusing to give her a reply.

"Damn, I'm ready to try anything. There's nothing in this crap." Warrick tossed his printouts down and got up to pace. "I'm going to call and see how my wife is. I haven't seen her in…." he glanced at the large watch on his wrist. "over thirty hours. Damn, I'm beginning to hate this job."

"You should go, see her in person." Sara decided. "Take a couple hours off."

"No….I swore to Gemma that I'd find these girls. That's what we're going to do." Warrick argued. They'd each taken a turn napping on the couch, so they were all as tired as the next one.

"Maybe we should have Lucy come back in." Sara proposed seriously. Warrick paused on his was out, and looked to Nick, as if asking for his opinion.

"You really believe all that stuff?" Nick looked from one friend to the other.

"I never thought I would." Warrick admitted, looking a little self-conscious about it. "But, the evidence of the reality is sort of in her favor. I'd like to think that she's right, about the baby……."

"Of course you would! That's how these people get their fame and fortune!" Nick insisted. "They tell you what you want to hear, or need to hear."

"She hasn't asked for anything." Sara informed him. "I gave her the forms for reimbursement on the gas she spent dragging you an Greg around, she didn't want it."

"She's already taken two days off of work." Warrick nodded. "What kind of fame and fortune do you think she's getting?"

"She's a nurse. They already make more money than she could possibly get from us." Sara continued. "She's just doing this to help us……to help those girls."

"What do you have against the girl?" Warrick demanded. "I thought you liked redheads!" Eyes widening he studied his friend with a look of understanding. "Oh! That's it. You do like her."

"Shut up Warrick." Nick snarled at the tall man. "I can't stand her. She's constantly in my face."

"Yeah and you want it that way. Nicky! You want to suck face with her." Warrick teased, smiling smugly.

"Suck face, Warrick?" Sara butt in, looking disgusted at the man. "What? Are we in the 7th grade again? Does Gemma know you say things like that?"

Warrick chuckled, unperturbed. "This isn't about me, this is about Nicky."

Nick, his face flaming, hurried out of the room, determined to get even with Warrick soon. The boisterous laughter of his two colleagues followed him down the hall. Hodges looked up from his work, looking questioningly at him as he passed. Nick paid him no attention.

Nick made his way into the locker room and sat down on the bench. He needed time away from his co-workers, he needed time to think. He wasn't about to get that, as his phone rang in his pocket. Without checking to see who it was he answered. "Stokes."

"Nicky, it Cath……we've got a problem." Catherine sounded upset, causing Nick to forget all about his problems.

"What's up?"

"Grab Warrick and get to the Rampart. Sam's suite has been attacked."

"Oh God……Gemma?" Nick felt the air around him closing in as he waited for Catherine to answer.

"I don't know. I'm on my way there. Just make sure Warrick gets here in one piece."

Hodges drove them to the Rampart. Nick had to physically restrain his friend. Sara had taken her own vehicle, going to pick up Lucy Malone for fear that she could be the next target.

When they pulled up to the hotel front, Warrick opened the door and jumped out before the car had stopped. Nick hurried after him, hoping to prevent him from doing anything stupid. By the time he caught up to Warrick, having missed the elevator, he was too late. Warrick was being physically restrained my two police officers. Ecklie was sprawled on the floor in front of him, nose bleeding.

"Oh geez." Nick groaned, taking in the scene. "Shit, Warrick…..man….."

"Let me go! Gemma! Gemma! I need to see my wife!" Warrick called hoarsely, tears of fear and frustration was streaming down his cheeks as he struggled to get loose from the officers.

"Daddy!" Jessica cried, running out of the open door of the suite, she barreled down the hall to Warrick. "Daddy!" Another officer charged after the little girl, having lost his hold on the small child. As Jessica passed by, Nick stepped forward, blocking the officer's attempt to recapture the little girl. Jessica wrapped herself around Warrick's lower body, causing the man to struggle harder so he could get to his daughter.

"Let him go. He won't cause anymore harm. Let him comfort his daughter." Nick barked. Reluctantly the restraining officers released him. Warrick fell to his knees, pulling the trembling girl into his embrace. Nick offered Ecklie a hand up. The irate man accepted the help and stood glaring at Warrick as he checked Jessica over for any injuries.

"Be prepared to face charges for this." He snarled. Warrick didn't pay any attention to him, too busy crooning the small child in his arms.

Nick heard, and took immediate defense. "Ecklie, let's pretend you have a heart. Imagine what he's going through…….his entire family is on this floor and you were preventing him from going to them."

"If he would have just taken a moment, I could have told him that they were all fine. Everything happened here in the hallway." Ecklie rolled his eyes. "You Night shifters are too emotional for your own good."

"And you wouldn't be emotional if this was your family?" Nick growled. Ecklie grimaced, admitting that this was an excuse to be a little emotionally involved.

"Alright, I'll let this time pass." He winced. "But keep him under control from now. Brown, get that child out of this bloodbath."

Warrick kept Jessica's eyes averted as he carefully made his way to the suite, mindful not to disturb any evidence the day shift would be collecting. Once he was inside the suite, Nick took a good look around the hall. Two of the goons that he'd ran into before lay dead, shot point blank, right between the eyes just outside the elevator.

Four men he'd never seen lay strewn about the hall, obviously taken down as they made their way to the suite. The head goon of Braun's was slumped against the wall beside the door to the suite. He had obviously taken several rounds before he finally succumbed, but not before he had successfully stopped all the intruders.

Nick felt a deep sense of gratitude for the man. He had given his life, saving the lives of the four females inside. Careful to step exactly where Warrick had, he made his way into the suite to find quite a crowd inside.

Warrick and Jessica were nowhere to be seen. Nick assumed they were in the bedroom where Gemma was. Several police officers were spread around the room. Grams sat in a chair, looking irritated and upset. Catherine was holding Lindsey to her as she spoke intently to Sam Braun. Nick gave Grams a wink before heading over to Sam and Catherine.

"So…..everyone in here okay?" Nick questioned, glancing down to the young girl. "Linds?"

"I'm okay Uncle Nick." Lindsey didn't sound like the little girl he'd once known. Although, clearly upset, she sounded like she was in control of herself. Nick gave her a smile, thinking how much like her mother she had become.

"Yes, Charles kept them out of here." Sam nodded towards the door with a sad look on his face. "He was a good man."

"I guess we owe you our thanks." Nick offered as he held out his hand to the man. Sam looked reluctant but accepted the offer.


	12. Chapter 12

Chapter 12

Whether Ecklie liked it or not, Gil Grissom was determined to tag along as Ecklie's team searched the known address of the deceased attackers of the Rampart suite. He brought Sara and Greg along with him, leaving Nick in charge of supervising Warrick Brown. The man had been pushed past his limit and they were all afraid that he would do something drastic.

In a small concession to who this case belonged to, Gil and his team hung back, letting the day shift crew do the walk through on their own. Only after they had had time to do their initial search did the night shifters go through it. Ecklie was quiet about his irritation due to the fact that this case was clearly connected to two of Gil's cases. He stood beside Gil as the bugman stared at the living area of one Jose Garnica.

"Think you can spare one of your guys to assist us in the phone record search?" Ecklie offered.

"Yeah, You can have Sanders." Gil agreed eagerly, wanting his team in on this. This was the closest to an answer they had gotten.

"Lowest man on your totem?" Ecklie snarled.

"He's the freshest I have available. Warrick and Catherine are out at the moment. Nick is unavailable. Sara is about to interview a potential witness to our other case." Gil motioned his guys over. "Greg, you're with Conrad for the moment. Sara, I need you to talk to our special witness again. You know where to find her, right?"

"Yeah, I left her with a friend." Sara nodded.

"See if she has any new information. Perhaps she knows something helpful." Gil suggested. Greg gave him a look like a puppy that had been kicked as Sara hurried off. "Greg, I need you on this. We need to break this case."

"Yeah." Greg agreed morosely following Ecklie away.

Nick strategically placed himself beside the door, playing cards with Jessica and Lindsey. From where he sat, he could keep an eye on Warrick and block the only way he could exit the place. "Uno." He grinned at the girls. Looking at Jessica. "Your turn. You need a green or a three."

Jessica stuck her tongue out in concentration as she studied the five cards in her hand. "No Gween." She said sadly.

"What about a three?" Lindsey suggested, tracing Nick's discarded three with her finger. Jessica checked her cards and shook her head with a slight pout. "What about a wild card? The card with the black on it?"

"YEAH!" Jessica slapped the wildcard down on the pile, absently dropping three of her other cards. Lindsey helped her right the cards explaining to Jessica that she had to pick a new color. "Pink!"

"You can't call pink, Sweetie." Nick chuckled, shaking his head. "That's not a color of the game. "You need to pick red, yellow, blue or green."

"Pick the one that you have the most of." Lindsey recommended gently.

Jessica stared at her cards intently, tongue sticking out in the effort. Finally she made her decision "Yadow!" Nick chuckled again, knowing he'd seen three blue cards dropped on the table a moment before. Lindsey smiled, trying to concentrate on her cards as Jessica complained. "I wike Pink. It's the pwettiest cadow."

"Yes, on you it is." Nick agreed. "But it's not part of this game." He winced as Lindsey stacked a procession of four Draw-Two cards onto the pile. Smiling smugly she topped it with a Wild Draw-four card.

"Blue Uncle Nick." she grinned. "Draw eight cards, and you're skipped. Jessie, it's your turn. Blue."

"Boo!" Jessica put a blue zero down as Nick filled his hand with new cards. Catherine was smirking at him from her spot on the couch where she was checking over witness statements.

"I should know better than play cards with these two." Nick grumbled good-naturedly. "The daughter of a gambler and the granddaughter of a casino mogul."

Catherine laughed aloud at that. Still chuckling she went back to her statements, continuing to listen as Nick got his butt kicked by two young girls.

Sara sat down next to Lucy in the lobby of the police station. She felt guilty for dumping the younger woman in such a miserable place, but three hours ago, she needed a secure place to have her. Lucy looked up at her, concerned about the expression she saw on her face.

"You okay Sara?"

"Yeah, Grissom sent me to ask if you've heard……or if you've seen anything new."

"No." Lucy shook her head, looking worried. "But….I've been feeling a really deep concern for Warrick. Is your friend okay? He is….isn't he?"

"Yes…..He's okay." Sara tried to smile reassuringly, but failed.

"What happened?"

"His family…..was attacked again." Sara hurried to reassure her, " They're all fine. The men that were protecting them were all killed. We've got to find these people before anyone else gets hurt."

"I wish I could help." Lucy sighed, looking truly distraught. "I don't know how to……force a vision or a visitation."

"Has it ever worked by touch. Touching someone or something?"

"Nothing distinctive…..usually just garbled images." Lucy confessed. "Perhaps I could try. Do you have something that belonged to Debra?"

"I don't, but I know someone who might." Sara smiled. "Come on, lets get out of here."

"Where are we going?" Lucy followed her.

"It might seem creepy, but I'm taking you to the morgue. A friend of mine works there, and he might help." Sara explained. "Doc is a friend of Debra's family."

Greg crowed with delight, spinning the desk chair in circles in celebration. Grabbing the printout he ran to Gil's office only to find it empty. Then he remembered that it wasn't Gil he was to report to, but Ecklie.

Turning around he headed towards the other man's office. He'd never dreaded going to talk to anyone as much as he dreaded Ecklie. Tapping lightly, he entered the office.

Ecklie frowned up at him. "What do you want Sanders?"

"I found something……several somethings actually." Greg explained nervously. "This guy, Garnica, called Holcomb three times in the last six months. He also called our other attacker, Carrey."

"I guess it's time I had a talk with Carrey then." Ecklie took the printouts, acting as if the conversation was over. I sit in on that. I interviewed him last time, and……I got a lot out of him. I'd like to see what he has to say this time." Greg questioned nervously.

"This isn't grade school Sanders. You're done, go back to your homeroom." Ecklie gave him a patronizing smile. Greg stood there in shock for a moment, unable to believe he'd just been spoken to like that. "Run off and play with your little friends."

Greg slammed out of the office. Yanking is phone out of his pocket, his first instinct was to call Warrick to vent. He'd almost punched in his number when he realized that Warrick would be with his family. Instead, he punched in Nick's number, needing to let out some steam.

Catherine charged up to Ecklie as he came out of the interrogation room. She got into his face, "You had no right to interview our perp without one of us in there!"

"Relax, the guy knows nothing." Ecklie told her, attempting to sidestep the irate woman.

"You should have allowed Greg in there. He got Carrey to confess who hired him. You shouldn't have sent him off to play. He knows more about this guy than you do!" Catherine felt the urge to spit in the man's face, but restrained herself. She took the pleasure of looking at Ecklie's broken nose and the bruises under his eyes caused by Warrick's fist. As she walked away from the weasel, she vowed to give Warrick a hug for that one.

Greg was waiting in the locker room for her. "He got nothing. We have to wait until tomorrow, but we'll get you in there with him.

"Tomorrow." Greg grimaced. "What about Holcomb? Can we question her?"

"Let's go talk to Gil, see what he says." Catherine put her arm around him, patting his back. "Ecklie's a pig, don't let him get you down. We wouldn't be this far without you, Greg."


	13. Chapter 13

Chapter 13

"Nicky! Get out of my Way!" A very angry Warrick demanded.

"Sorry bro, I can't let you leave." Nick stood barring the way. Warrick glared at him, nostrils flaring as Nick added. "Grissom doesn't want you out on this case. I'm here to keep you out of trouble."

"You will be the one in trouble if you don't get out of my way." Warrick threatened. Seeing that Nick wasn't budging ,he added. "Damn it Nicky. I don't want to hurt you….but I will if you don't get out of my way."

"Warrick, I can't." Nick winced, seeing his friend balling up his fists, preparing to fight him. "Geez, Warrick! It's for your own good. You've already attacked a suspect in this case. You punched Ecklie! That almost ended your career!"

"I don't care about my career right now." Warrick growled. "I want this ended! Now! It's been days since my daughter has been out playing with friends in the sunshine. She's already had a crappy life, she doesn't deserve to be holed up in this place, fearful of her life! I want this over!" Warrick reached up, gathering the front of Nick's shirt in his fist, he added silkily. "I'm going out now, whether Grissom or you think I should or not."

Nick let out a sigh, studying his friend for a moment. He knew he'd never be able to actually fight Warrick. Although he knew some claimed that Warrick had softened since marrying Gemma, he knew that it wasn't true. Warrick would kick his butt in no time flat. "How about I accompany you?"

Warrick gave him a relieved smile. "Yeah, Bro…..I'd like that."

"You gonna be cool?" Nick eyed the man's tired, stressed face.

"Yeah." Warrick stood up taller. His grin was self-assured, "I'm always cool."

"Yeah." Nick laughed. "Of course you are……..Just so you know…….I'm in charge out there today."

"Yeah…..picture that!" Warrick snorted as Nick unlocked the door.

Hand on the doorknob, Nick turned and looked at his friend. "I can have you arrested. Your butt could be sitting in a jail cell until this is over." He threatened softly so that Warrick knew he wasn't joking. "I'm in charge today."

"Yeah, sure."

"I'm serious Rick." Nick insisted. "It's my butt in the ringer if you screw up."

"I could hit you right now. Leave you lying on the floor taking a nighty-night. It wouldn't be your responsibility anymore." Warrick offered.

"I think I'll pass." Nick opened the door, knowing Warrick wasn't going to back down. This way, at least he'd be around to jump into the fray.

"Hi, David. Where's the Doc?" Sara greeted the man who was examining something Sara didn't want to know about.

"Hi Sara. He's in the back. Paperwork, I think." David looked up with a smile. He watched the two women walk through to the office. Two beautiful women, alive and well, in the morgue was a rare occasion, he didn't want to waste a moment of the vision.

Sara knocked a short rap and opened the door. "Doc? Got a moment?"

"Sure Sara, come on in." He welcomed her, rising to greet her. He looked questioningly at her companion. "New recruit?"

"No, this is…..a friend. Lucy Malone. She's the reason we're here."

"Oh?" Doc leaned forward offering his hand. "Al Robbins."

"Nice to meet you." Lucy clasped his hand, immediately assaulted by images. They flooded through her until she broke the contact and dropped herself into a chair.

"Are you okay?" Doc stepped forward, concerned.

"Don't touch me!" Lucy put up her hands as if to shield herself from him.

"Lucy?" Sara knelt beside her. "What's going on."

"That's never happened to me. It was like thousands of images were bombarding me all at once." Lucy explained, wiping tears from her eyes.

"Debra's?"

"I don't know. It could have been hers too." Lucy looked pointedly at the door that led to the morgue. "There were so many……I couldn't see any of them."

"Sara?" Al cut in, "What is this all about?"

"Lucy has been in contact with Debra Jo-"Sara began to explain.

"Debbie?" Al interrupted. "What do you mean? Like visions or something?"

"Yes, she came to visit me after her death. Wanted me to help rescue the girls." Lucy had successfully pushed aside the images that had crowded her mind. "I know it's hard to believe….but, it's true."

"It's not hard to believe. In my line of work, you have to believe that there's something else afterward." Al pulled up a chair and sat close to her. "Debbie's father was my friend. I knew Debbie well. You came here, hoping to get another vision from her?"

"Yes, but…..there's too many." Lucy looked sadly at the door again. "I didn't think about you being in contact with so many….."

"We're stuck, Doc." Sara added softly. "We're grasping at straws."

Greg Sanders was not grasping at straws. He and Gil Grissom were pounding there heads against a brick wall once again. That brick wall was named Jillian Holcomb.

The woman would not budge. She simply refused to say a word about where her children were. She knew where they were. Gil knew she knew. Greg knew she knew. Even her lawyer knew she knew where they were. She simply refused to tell where they were. They had her, whether she told where they were or not. She just didn't care. As he realized this, Greg hated the woman. She didn't care about her children.

"We're done here." Jim growled.

"Come on Greg." Gil placed a supportive hand on the man's shoulder. "Let's go." Greg was silent as they filed out of the room. In the hallway he exploded.

"That woman is a witch! She doesn't give a crap about her kids!" He yelled, filled with anger, he went over to the wall and pounded his fist. He had succeeded in bruising his fist before the others pulled him away from the wall. "They're her own flesh and blood."

"People are sick." Gil shrugged. "We can't let her get to us. We still have Carrey. You'll get him first thing in the morning."

"Yeah, but will we find the girls in time?" Greg questioned.

"Don't give up on them." Gil admonished. "We're all they have."

"I thought you were supposed to keep him chained up?" Hodges asked dryly as Nick and Warrick entered his lab.

"Yeah, Picture that." Nick did his best Warrick impersonation, causing Warrick to grin sheepishly and Hodges to laugh aloud.

"Where's Sara?" Warrick questioned.

"Umm, she took your redheaded friend to the morgue." Hodges shrugged, turning back to his work.

"The morgue?" Nick and Warrick repeated at the same time."

"Relax Stokes, she wasn't dead." Hodges smirked. "They were going to see Robbins."


	14. Chapter 14

Chapter 14

The guys hurried down to the morgue. They found the women with David and Al, in the viewing room. The body of Debra lay in the open drawer before them. Lucy was whiter than a ghost, trembling as he hand lay on the body of the deceased woman.

"What the hell are you doing to her!" Nick charged forward, pulling Lucy away from the body. She went limp in his grasp and he had to pull her against him to keep her from falling. "Warrick, help me!"

Warrick grabbed a stool and set it down beside Nick, helping him balance the woman on the stool. Nick moved around in front of her, lightly patting the woman's too-pale cheeks. Her tawny eyes were unfocused as her eyes fluttered open and closed. "Doc?" She okay?" Warrick cried out nervously.

"She was in a trance." Sara explained, peering nervously over Nick's shoulder. "We didn't do anything to her. She was trying to contact Debra."

"She doesn't look too good." David admitted. Al pushed through, checking her pulse.

"Maybe she should lie down. Put her on a table over there." Al suggested. "Her pulse is steady."

"I ain't laying her on a table in the morgue. It's for dead people. You want her to wake up from a faint and think she's dead?" Nick looked at the older man like he was crazy.

"S-ss-alright." Lucy murmured, frowning. Warrick went over and got her some water from the sink. After a couple of sips, she sat up on her own. Eyes open and clear, she looked around at the people hovering. "I'm fine. Really, I am. I think I know where the girls are." Looking from Warrick to Nick, she frowned. "Hi guys?"

"You talked to Debra?" Sara questioned.

"No, I don't talk, they do." Lucy shook her head weakly. "But, Debra showed me images. I saw the building the girls are at. Debra is afraid. The girls have been alone for a while now. They're scared, they're hungry."

"Do you know where?" Warrick questioned eagerly.

"No, but behind the building, I saw something familiar."

Lucy frowned, trying to picture the image. "Some sort of sign, in the air….like a neon sign or something."

"This is Vegas, that doesn't narrow it down much." Warrick grumbled, pulling his notepad out of his pocket. "Can you draw what you remember?"

"I'll try." Lucy took the pad and the pencil Sara supplied. Glancing up, she looked around at them. "Can you give me a minute?"

"Sure." Warrick shrugged, but no one moved.

Nick cleared his throat. "What she meant was for everyone to back off." He told them pointedly. Ill at ease, everyone backed away, giving her some space.

"Thank you." She smiled up at Nick, causing his heart to melt a tiny bit. He gave her a wink and walked over to where Warrick was pacing.

"What are we doing here, Bro?" Warrick grumbled as Nick approached.

"Could you stand still? You're making me seasick." Nick reached out as Warrick paced past him, grabbing his arm to stop him.

"I hate this!" Warrick snarled. "Just sitting around, waiting for something…..anything! I want this shit over! Now!"

"We all do." Nick kept his hand on the bigger man's arm, holding him still. "I know this is harder on you than any of us, but we will finish this. Anyway we can."

"Greg, Catherine and Grissom are all working on the evidence we have. They're scheduled to interview Jarrod Carrey in about two hours." Sara informed him. "Greg got information from him earlier, he'll do it again."

"Greg?" Warrick looked amazed. "He did the interview?"

"Yeah." Sara chuckled. "Catherine told me that Greg kicked butt. Didn't let up on him until he gave him the information he needed."

"Greggo is the man of the hour." Nick chuckled.

"Always knew he had it in him." Warrick agreed. "He's a good CSI. He may still be a kid to us, but he's a damn good CSI."

"Guys, this is the best I can do." Lucy came over, offering the notepad to Warrick. He took it quietly, looking down at it with a frown. After a moment he grinned.

"This is great! I know this place!" Warrick crowed. "Road trip gang!"

"Where are we going Warrick?" Sara trotted after him. He set a quick pace and his companions had to hustle to keep up with him.

"One of my old neighborhoods. Off the strip, one of the best gambling you can get." Warrick explained as they got to the SUV. Sara, having grabbed the notepad, examined the drawing but she didn't recognize anything.

"Why would you hang out in places off the strip, aren't they the ones that are dangerous?" Sara questioned.

"Sometimes, when you're down, the strip doesn't welcome you….you gotta go somewhere else." Warrick confessed.

"Were you really that far into it?" Sara questioned. She had known he was a gambler, had tried to convince Gil to fire him because of it, but she never questioned how deep he'd actually been.

Warrick chose not to answer. Sara understood that he wasn't proud of how far he'd sunk. She was impressed at how far he'd risen.

Lucy made a small strangled sound as Warrick turned a corner. She grabbed the back of Nick's seat and the seat beside her, bracing herself. Sara reached over and patted the hand beside her. "Don't worry, we suspect that Warrick was trained by Nascar." She smirked.

"I heard that." Warrick glanced at her through the rearview mirror.

"He's very into competitions." Nick said over his shoulder playfully. "He takes the challenges of driving very seriously."

"He's never been in an accident." Sara added.

"At least, it hasn't been proven that he was in one." Nick quipped.

"You know, you two can walk." Warrick threatened, sounded a little peeved. "And since you don't know where you're going, it would be a long walk."

Warrick's voice was still playful, but Nick and Sara both knew when to stop their teasing. Lucy looked at the three of them, impressed by the relationship between the three coworkers. They weren't the type of friendly coworkers she had known. They people who truly knew one another, and cared about each other. She could feel the friendship emanating from them and it made her feel good about knowing them.

Warrick pulled up along the side of the road. "Well Lucy? Is that what you saw?"

Lucy looked out the window at the neon sign across the street. "Yes! It is…..but it wasn't this close up, it was smaller, in the background."

"Now what?" Nick grunted, irritated. "So we found a sign…..big deal?"

"We know have a search area." Sara pulled out the city map from the case under her seat. Marking the spot, she drew a circle around the area. "Now we start circling the area until we find the right distance from this sign."

"That'll take hours." Nick frowned.

"You got a better idea, Bro?" Warrick challenged. Nick shrugged. "Good, now get in the back, Lucy needs to be in front."


	15. Chapter 15

Chapter 15

Greg sat down beside Jim Brass and looked at Jarrod Carrey. Carrey glared back at him, but without any real animosity. He knew what Greg was there for, and his lawyer and worked out some arrangement that was in his favor.

"So Carrey, I hear you're ready to talk." Jim began, not one to beat around the bush.

"Yeah, fire away." Carrey looked to Greg expectantly.

"So you want to tell me why you were chatting with Garnica so much?" Greg questioned.

"I wasn't talking to Garnica."

"Your phone records say otherwise. Suppose it was twenty-two wrong numbers?" Greg slammed the printout down and pointed to the highlighted calls. "And Garnica made forty-one wrong number calls to you?" Another print out was slapped down beside it. "Please, feel free to explain."

"My cousin was staying at his place, I was talking to him." Carrey rolled his eyes as if anyone should have known that.

"Your cousin?" Greg looked through the file quickly, but he didn't need to, he knew it by heart, cover to cover. "What's his name?"

"Kiefer. Gerome Kiefer." Carrey looked at Greg with interest. "Why?"

"Have you had contact with him since you've been in here?" Greg drummed his fingers on the table.

"No, can't nobody find him."

"Does he have a record?"

"Nope, he ain't ever been arrested. He's a good kid, not even a speeding ticket."

"Kid? He's younger than you?"

"Yeah, looks about your age. Hey, what's with all the questions about Gerome?"

"Well, Garnica and a crew of guys attempted to attack your previous victim. They didn't succeed. I'm concerned that one of the assailants was your cousin."

"I don't know anything about that! I ain't rollin' over on my cousin!"

"There's no need for that. You see…..they didn't succeed, we have them all….in….custody." Greg wondered how to explain it to the man.

"Aww-sheeett!" Carrey moaned. "Ya telling me that he's been arrested?"

"No…the reason they failed is because they're all dead." Greg explained, "I think your cousin is one of the unidentified."

Carrey frowned at him, looking as if he could actually start to cry. "You think so?"

"Care to look, maybe see if you recognize one of these men as your cousin?" Greg pulled out the pictures of the two unknown assailants and placed then face down on the table. "It's up to you, whether you look at them or not."

Carrey reached over with his cuffed hands and flipped over the pictures. He grimaced and paled as he looked at the second photo. "Awww…Gerry!"

"I'm sorry. I take it this is your cousin." Greg took the photos back, handing the one of the cousin to Brass.

"Gerry was a good kid." Carrey glowered. "I told him that Garnica would lead him to no good!."

"Yeah, but it wasn't Garnica that set the deal up was it?" Greg made a show of shuffling his files. "Any idea how they got hooked up with all this? Did you get them involved or did they recruit you?"

"Garnica connected me to the chick." Carrey groused. "Said she had a job that he couldn't do, so he gave me her number. Then she contacted me again for the Brown woman. I tole Gerry to stay out of it."

"Was your cousin involved with the Holcomb kidnapping?" Greg continued.

"He didn't do the kidnapping." Carrey told him maintained before admitting. "But Garnica was having him watch the brats. I swear…..I don't know where they are! I know Gerry didn't hurt them!"

"So….with Garnica and his crew dead……who's watching the girls?" Greg asked Brass. Suddenly the small hope they had held onto disappeared.

Warrick stood leaning against the SUV. They'd been driving around in circles for hours with no luck. Nick and Sara had gone inside the diner to get them some sandwiches, Lucy was stretching a few feet away from him. Looking through the window, he could see that they would be waiting for a while. He pulled out his phone and dialed. When the call connected he smiled. "Hey Baby, how are you feeling?"

Lucy stepped away, trying not to eavesdrop, but he wasn't trying to hide. "Yeah Baby, I'm fine………sure……I'm just fixing to take a nap on the break room couch." He lied easily, blushing slightly. "Yeah Baby, we're going to find the girls. I swear…I won't stop until we do. No…..Baby…..I'm not coming home until I find these girls."

Warrick paced beside the car with the phone, listening to his wife as she spoke. "Gemma……I'm thinking you should take Grams and Jess, take a trip to visit Mama Peg for a while." He winced as she said something to him. "Sweetheart….I want you guys safe. I'm tired of you being in danger."

"Hey Subs for everyone!" Nick called out as he and Sara came out with their to-go boxes.

"Look, Baby, I've got to go. I'll call you back later….I really want you to think about the trip to Oklahoma. I gotta go…..Love ya Baby." Warrick hurriedly finished his call, putting his phone into his pocket, he took the sodas from Sara. "Let's eat while we drive some more."

"Warrick-"Sara began to argue, but stopped herself as she saw the stubborn expression on his face. They were all tired, they were all stressed, but Warrick had it worse. His family had been hurt from all this. His family were still threatened by this. It was slowly tearing him apart. "Why don't I drive for awhile? You need to rest."

"No." Warrick went around to the drivers side. "I'm okay."

The group climbed back into the SUV, Nick passed the sandwiches out as Warrick start out again. Only because his friends continued to harp on him, did Warrick even pick at his sandwich. He just wanted this all to end.

"Warrick, stop!" Lucy cried out an hour later. Warrick braked hard, jarring his passengers. Lucy scrambled out of the vehicle, pointing at an old abandoned building. "That's it!"

The CSI's rocketed out of the SUV, coming to stand and look at the building she was pointing to.

"You sure?" Warrick questioned. "This is where you've seen?"

"It's an old police station." Nick declared. "I remember they were discussing whether to tear it down a couple of years ago."

"Well, let's go check it out." Warrick pulled out his gun, checking it as he strode towards the building.

"Wait! Warrick! We don't have a warrant!" Sara made to grab him, but he was too quick for her. He made it to the fencing surrounding the place and started looking for a way in.

"At this point, do we even care?" Nick hurriedly followed suit.

"I'm calling for backup." Sara decided. She called it in, then followed the guys, who were slowly making their way around the lot, looking for some sort of break in the fencing. Sara went the opposite direction.

Lucy stayed where she was, unsure of what to do. The SUV was still idling in the middle of the street, doors wide open. She looked to the CSI's then back to the vehicle. Common sense told her that she shouldn't interfere with their business.

Instead, she went around the vehicle, shutting the doors until she got to the drivers side. There, she got in and moved the SUV to the side of the road. Turning off the motor, she pocketed the keys and headed towards the direction she had last seen Sara.

"Guys! Over here!" Sara called out suddenly. "I've found a way in!"


	16. Chapter 16

Chapter 16

Lucy, Warrick and Nick ran quickly to the opening in the fence that Sara had found. "We really should wait for backup." Sara reminded them, but she no more meant it than Warrick an Nick paid attention to it. Warrick was already slithering through the gap, catching his shirt on it. Nick yanked the material free, ripping it in the process. Warrick didn't seem to care. He crouched, just inside the fence, gun drawn, waiting for Nick and Sara to join him.

Once through, Nick turned back to Lucy. "You've got to stay here. We're already going to be in enough trouble. We can't let you come in here with us unless we all want to lose our jobs."

"I'm the one that got you this far! What am I supposed to do? Sit here and knit like a good little girl." Lucy demanded, angry.

"Stay here, wait for the police." Sara suggested.

"Yeah and when the rest of our team gets here, fill them in on everything." Warrick added before making some motions to Nick. Nick must have understood, because he nodded and the two mean crept closer to the building in different directions.

Sara looked back at Lucy, concerned that she wouldn't stay put. "Please, stay out here."

"I don't want to….but I will." Lucy agreed very reluctantly.

Warrick approached the door cautiously. Someone had busted open the lock. Crouching to the right of the door, he pushed it open with one had, his gun clutched in his other hand. He surveyed the immediate interior as he let his eyes adjust to the dim lighting.

He motioned for Nick to come, without looking, he knew his friend was just behind him. Nick moved forward to crouch on the other side of the doorway. He too examined the room for any signs of movement.

"Warrick, be careful." Nick warned in a whisper as Warrick moved forward into the building. Once again, he made sure it was clear, and motioned for Nick to follow. As Nick did, Sara appeared to take his place at the doorway. There was no sign of anyone in what looked like the main lobby of the old police precinct. Using his mag-light, Nick examined footprints on the dusty floor. Someone had been through here recently. Several some ones.

Warrick began to move off to the right, slowly checking around each and every nook and cranny. Nick did the same in the opposite direction, motioning for Sara to follow Warrick.

Warrick paused just inside the next room, glancing over his shoulder at Sara. He muttered quietly, "Something smells wrong in here."

Sara nodded, looking around. Nothing looked wrong but there was a bad vibe coming from the room. Warrick continued forward, heading towards a door on the far end of the room. Sara saw another door off to the side. Gun ready, she went to it and opened the door wide. A whooshing sound alerted her and she was able to duck just in time. A quick moving projectile flew past her head.

"Sara!" Warrick called out to her followed by a scream of pain. Sara spun around to see Warrick pressed up against a wooden cabinet, writhing in pain as he clutched his leg. Sara's flying projectile had pierced through the back of his thigh and embedded into the cabinet, trapping him. Sara hurried over to him as he fought to control the noise he made.

Warrick was moaning in pain as she approached. "Shit." He groaned.

"I'm so sorry." Sara sobbed. "I'm going to have to hurt you to get you loose."

"Just do it!" Warrick rasped. "Do it before I bleed to death." A sound came from behind them. Both CSI's spun, aiming their guns at Nick.

"What the hell happened?" Nick gasped.

"No Nick! Stay where you are!" Sara called out. "This place is booby-trapped!"

Warrick was growing weak from the loss of blood. He reached down and tried to unbuckle his belt with one hand as he gripped the cabinet to keep himself upright. "I….I…I..can't….do…it." He stuttered, his hand falling from his belt.

"What?" Sara looked up at him, in shock.

"A tourniquet, Sara." Nick called. "Use his belt as a tourniquet."

"Yeah." Sara forced herself out of her stunned stupor. Kneeling beside Warrick, she unfastened his belt and pulled it off. She hooked the belt around his upper thigh. The tightening of the belt brought out a small cry of pain from Warrick. While he was still recovering from that pain, she gripped the steel rod and yanked it as hard as she could. It pulled loose from the cabinet and his leg with ease.

The large, wounded man collapse, coming down hard on top of Sara.

"Sara?" Nick called, seeing that Warrick had her pinned to the ground. Sara struggled helplessly as the unconscious man lay atop her. "You okay?" He questioned as he followed Warrick's footsteps, coming over to them.

"Get this big lug off of me." Sara was pushing helplessly at Warrick. The two hundred pounds of solid muscle did not budge. Nick took his friend and carefully rolled him off of Sara and onto his back.

Sara grabbed her phone, calling for help. She quickly stated that an officer was down. Nick began to gently smack Warrick's cheeks. "Come on buddy, wake up. Come on Bro, Come on."

"ssssss-stop." Warrick hissed, a hand reaching up to halt the incessant tapping on his face.

"Nick laughed in relief. "Okay bro, I'll stop."

"Warrick?" Sara leaned over to look into his pale face.

"Hey girl, Did ya forget to check the door before you opened it?" Warrick whispered, obviously in pain.

"I'm sorry." Sara winced. "I'm so sorry Warrick."

"Ah…I've had worse." Warrick chuckled weakly.

"Here." Lucy was suddenly standing beside Nick, offering a towel from the SUV.

"What are you doing in here?" Nick spun and glared at the woman, but took the proffered towel. "I told you to stay outside."

"I figured you might need help with them being hurt." Lucy snapped back.

"Them?" Nick turned his attention to Sara. "Sara? Are you hurt?"

"Well…it's just my ankle. When he fell on me, it snapped my ankle back, I think it's just sprained." Sara admitted with a wince. "I don't think I can walk."

"Nicky, you've got find the girls." Warrick insisted.

"Okay." Nick nodded. "Someone needs to stay with him anyway. Sara, that means you. See if you can get them to get here a little quicker."

"I'm going with you." Lucy informed him. "I can show you where the other traps are."

"There's more?" Sara groused.

"Yeah, they didn't want anyone coming in here." Lucy nodded. "I'm sorry I didn't get to warn you Warrick."

"Hey, just tell me I'll live, and I'll forgive you." Warrick chuckled, his eyes closed, but he was alert.

"Yes." Lucy laughed, sounding a little relieved. "There's a lot more to your story than this."

"If I wasn't in love with my wife…..I'd marry you." Warrick jested. Everyone but Nick laughed at his joke.

"Come on if you're coming." he grumbled.


	17. Chapter 17

Gil Grissom sped across town with Catherine and Greg riding silently in the car with him. They had all be upset to hear that their team was out working the case without a police escort. The news that one of them had been injured had sent them flying to the car.

"Why can't they tell us who it is?" Greg inquired. "At least tell us how bad it is."

"As far as I know, they don't know yet." Grissom replied. He didn't let on, but he was as worried as Greg was. Those were his guys out there. He wanted to get there, to see if they were okay. Once he assured himself that they were, he planned on ripping them a new one for going against protocol.

"Don't touch that door, Nick." Lucy warned as they approached yet another door. "It's the same as the one that got Warrick."

"Good to know." Nick stared at the door with a frown. "I want you to stand over here, against the wall." He took her hand an moved her to the side. "Are you sure it's the same type of rigging?"

"Metal stick, set to fly out when you open it." Lucy nodded.

"Hmm, okay, I've got an idea." Reaching over to the doorknob, he unlatched the knob with out opening the door. With a quick thrust of his foot, he sent the door flying open as he pivoted back on the other leg, slamming himself against the wall, safely out of the way.

The steel rod was still reverberating when he caught his breath. It had shot through the doorway and embedded itself in the wall across the room. "Geez!" He swallowed roughly. No wonder Warrick hadn't been able to avoid it. Not only had his back been turned, but the sucker had been speeding. He promised himself to check out the rigging of this particular trap when this day was over.

"I suppose you still don't believe me." Lucy hissed angrily.

"Give it a rest." Nick snapped back.

"No, I don't want to give it a rest." Lucy continued. "You've been on my case all along. Making snide remarks, insulting my abilities. You even had the nerve to compare me to the-"

Nick grabbed the back of her head, yanking her toward him as his mouth came down to silence her tirade. After kissing her breathless, he pulled back and grinned.

"Just shut up. Let's go find the kids." he told her before heading on.

"You…..that……" Lucy stammered as she followed him along. "Why did you do that?"

"I wanted to." Nick shrugged, laughter in his voice as he added. "I thought you needed it."

Lucy didn't reply. She stopped starring up a set of stairs in the middle of the hallway they were traveling through. "Nick?"

"What?" Pausing, he turned to face her. He looked curiously up the stairs as she did.

"They're up there. They're frightened. Warrick scared them when he screamed. They think the men are coming back for them. They're crying."

"Are there anymore traps?" Nick questioned, worried about ascending the stairs.

"No, but they're so frightened."

Nick frowned, his pulse racing at the thought of finally finding the children. "Lizzie Holcomb!" He called up the stairs. "Kelly!"

There was no response, so Nick took a couple steps up the stairs. He heard his footfalls echoing up before him, understanding how frightening the sound might be to the girls. "Girls? My name is Nick Stokes, I'm here to help you!"

Nick took a few more steps, calling out to the girls as he did. "Lizzie? My name is Nick, I'm with the police. We've been looking for you for a long time? Are you okay?" There was still no answer, Nick looked questioningly at Lucy who looked nervous and hopeful at the same time. "Kelly? Can you hear me?"

Still no answer. Thinking about Jessica Brown, he thought about conversations he'd had with her. "Kelly? What's your favorite color? Mines blue, but I have a little friend who tells me that pink is a much better color? She wears it all the time." He continued to climb, chattering as he did. "Her name is Jessica. She's four. She likes monkeys and Barbie's. She's my pal. She likes to sing songs? Do you guys like to sing songs? She likes songs like…..The Wheels on the Bus. Ya know that song? The wheels on the bus go round and round, round and round. The wheels on the bus go round and round, all through the town." Nick began to sing.

"The wipers on the bus go…….what do they do?" He questioned. "Do they go back and forth? I can't remember…."

"Swish, swish, swish." A small voice called out quietly. Nick smiled with relief.

"Yeah, that's it Kelly. The wipers on the bus go swish, swish, swish all through the town." He made it to the stop of the stairs, glancing back at Lucy, who motioned for him to go to the left. "What's next Kelly? The door or the windows?"

"The babies on the bus go waah, waah, waah." The little voice carried on.

"Yeah, that's right. Then the Mommies on the bus say hush baby hush, hush baby hush." Nick opened one final door and saw a row of jail cells. In the very last cell, the two girls huddled together. Stopping in front of the cell, he knelt down and looked at the girls through the bars. "Hi girls. I'm Nick."

"I like that song." The littlest girl looked up at him through her teary eyes, her face stained with old tears.

"Me too." Nick felt a lump growing in his throat. "Let's get you out of here, and we can sing it as long as you like." Rising, he looked around, spotting an axe laying in the corner. "Cover your eyes girls." He warned before he began to hit the hinges with the blunt side of the axe. It didn't take much to get the decrepit hinges to come loose. He swung the door open and rushed inside. Both girls held out their skinny arms to him and he gladly encircled them into his embrace.

"There's a lot of people that will be glad to see you guys." Nick told them as they hugged him tightly. Lucy quietly entered the room, watching them quietly. "So many will be happy."

"Not Mom." Lizzie finally spoke. "She's gonna be made. She wanted us gone. She tole the men that."

"We can talk about that later. First, let's get you guys out of this place. Look, here's my friend Lucy. She helped me find you." Nick introduced the girls to the woman as he lifted Kelly and handed her to Lucy. "Let's get out of here." Lifting Lizzie into his arms, he headed out the way they came.

They were met downstairs by a swarm of police and rescue workers but the girls refused to leave the security of their arms. By the time he had exited the building he had heard from several people that Warrick and Sara had been taken to Desert Sands but would both be okay.

Nick carried Lizzie all the way to the awaiting ambulance with Lucy following behind with Kelly. Placing Lizzie onto the awaiting gurney, he turned to face the angry face of Gil Grissom.

"I gave you the simple task of keeping Warrick out of trouble. Not only do you fail to do that, but you drug Sara into it and allowed them both to get injured."

"Have you ever managed to keep Warrick out of trouble?" Nick questioned dryly. "Or keep Sara out of something as big as this?"

"That's not the point Nicky." Gil frowned. "Not only did your two teammates get hurt, but you brought a civilian into the mess."

"I tried to make her wait in the car. You know what they say about redheads and being stubborn. Catherine has got nothing on this one." Nick shot a grin at Lucy who was standing close to where Kelly was being checked by the paramedics.

"You saying that you're not to blame for any of this?" Gil questioned.

"No….if anyone has to be blamed, it might as well be me. Warrick's going to be benched due to his injuries that should be enough punishment for him since he's entitled to a little slack lately. Sara, as you say, was just along for the ride. I'll take the blame."

"Very noble of you Nicky." Gil grinned. "But not necessary. You guys found the girls. You'll be heroes."

"The girls should be the heroes." Nick shrugged then grew serious. "You need to have Lizzie interviewed, she said some incriminating things about her mother. We might have a case on her after all."

"You've done good Nicky. Really good." Gil nodded, turning off to talk to someone about something. Nick turned to see Lucy climbing into the ambulance with Kelly. The woman smiled at him as the door shut.

Nick thought about the kiss he'd given her. He thought about the way her mouth had given under the pressure of his. It had felt wonderful. Nick felt the desire to kiss her again, and decided that he soon would. He thought maybe he finally understood Warrick's inability to stop smiling when he thought of Gemma. He climbed into the ambulance with Lizzie, eager to see Lucy at the hospital.

Today was looking like it'd be a good day.

_The End_

_Thank you for sticking with me while this story played out. I'm seriously considering a third chapter to this series, so if you have any comments or criticism, PLEASE let me know! _


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